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Miami Beach, 1974 © GODLIS GODLIS is widely known for his photos of the punk scene in New York... the rest of his archive is also rich and fabulous. Let's sneak back in time with him to Miami Beach, 1974. "I took these photographs in late winter 1974, when I was in Miami Beach for 10 days visiting my (Jewish) grandmother who lived in the area now known as South Beach. I was on a short break from my first year of photography school up in Boston (East Cambridge, a school called Imageworks). By that time in 1974, I was already knee deep into "street photography", and had already burned my way through various photography books: Henri Cartier-Bresson's Decisive Moment, Robert Frank's The Americans, as well as the work of Garry Winogrand and Lee Friedlander. "But it is Diane Arbus who echoes through all of these Miami Beach 1974 photographs. Diane Arbus died less than 3 years earlier, in the summer of 1971. And by fall of 1972 a tremendous exhibition of her life's work had opened at the Museum of Modern Art in NYC. Quite unlike any photo exhibition before, there were long lines of people daily at the Museum to see her work. I took a trip (a pilgrimage) to New York to see that show, and got myself a copy of the now legendary Arbus Aperture Monograph. And a little over a year later I took these pictures in Miami Beach. This is no coincidence. "At age 22, Miami Beach was somewhat familiar territory to me. I had been on many visits to Miami as a kid visiting my grandparents. So I was quite familiar with the mix of palms and kitsch. There are photos of me in my Davy Crocket shirt under the palm trees. But now, instead of having my picture taken, I was doing the picture taking. Shooting over those 10 days with my Pentax Spotmatic and a wide angle lens, I was welcomed by the Jewish retirees playing cards - "why do need my picture?" "You're such a nice boy, you should meet my granddaughter". I spent every day wandering along Ocean Drive and accompanying Lummus Park lawns, nearby Washington Street, the Dog Tracks and the old Pier. I took trips to the Zoo, and explored the Lincoln Road Mall where I found the "golden girls" protesters demonstrating for Nixon's impeachment, less than two years after the 1972 Republican Convention had nominated him in Miami Beach itself. I went back to photography school with over 50 shot rolls of Tri-X, and realized I'd just turned a corner. "When taking these pictures, I remember following the advice of Garry Winogrand. Look through the lens carefully, and be very aware of what you include between the four edges of the photograph. Keep your eyes open and concentrate. I believe that it was during this 10 day break from photography school in Miami Beach in 1974 that I first found my "eye."" - GODLIS

Deja Nelfiria Butts, a daughter of Linda Forrest and Richard M. Butts, both of Jamaica, Queens, is to be married Aug. 14 to Nicholson Pierre Blaise, a son of Hermine M. Blaise and Nicholson Blaise of Brockton, Mass. Pastor Omar Jarvis, a Seventh-day Adventist minister, is to perform the ceremony at the Wadsworth Mansion in Middletown, Conn. The bride, 28, is an accountant for the New York Health and Racket Club in Manhattan. She graduated from St. John's University, from which she also received a master’s degree in taxation. Her father is a residential building contractor in Queens and Manhattan. Her mother owns a temporary staffing company that places teachers in charter schools in Queens, Brooklyn and Long Island. The groom, 34, is a registered nurse at Northwell Health Long Island Jewish Medical Center in New Hyde Park, N.Y., and is studying for a master’s degree in nursing from Simmons College in Boston. He has two bachelor’s degrees, one in economics from the University of Massachusetts in Boston and another in nursing from Oklahoma City University. His mother is a registered nurse at the Boston Public Health Commission. His father is a plumber in Brockton. The couple met in 2011 while serving as a bridesmaid and a groomsman at the wedding of their friends. A year later, those same friends returned the favor by setting them up on their first date.

The government discussed Sunday an expansion of the town of Charish into a major metropolitan area. Currently home to 300 families, the government plans to turn Charish into a city of 55,000 residents by 2020. Within a decade, plans call for the expansion of the town to 100,000 residents. The government discussed making Charish into a “preferential development area,” which means it will receive tax breaks and extra development assistance for the construction of business and industrial areas, and the extension of roads and rail lines to serve the expected influx of residents. The plan, officials said, will cost the state at least NIS 450 million. Charish, located in the Wadi Ara area east of Netanya, was originally slated as a city for chareidi and observant families, but that plan was shelved after residents of several of the Jewish towns in the area expressed their objections. The chareidi town will instead be built in the Negev, between Be’er Sheva and Arad, while Charish will be opened to the general public. The development of a large Jewish city in the region has been on the government’s agenda for over a decade. The Wadi Ara area is mostly populated by Israeli Arabs, and for security and development reasons, the construction of a Jewish population center is considered an important national objective. Charish is currently considered a depressed area. The town has an unemployment rate of over 10 percent, nearly double the national average. More than one third of the current residents are eligible for reductions in real estate taxes.

IF THE polls are right, Mauricio Macri, who narrowly won Argentina’s presidency against the odds two years ago, will strengthen his hand in mid-term elections on October 22nd. A good result in the ballot, in which a third of senate seats and half of those in the lower house of congress are being contested, would help him to complete economic and institutional reforms already begun. If that happens, Argentina may at last begin to recover the prosperity for which it was long ago fabled. Success for the pragmatic, business-minded Mr Macri may also mark the political demise of Cristina Fernández de Kirchner and the ruinously populist brand of Peronism that she espoused for eight years as president until 2015. Ms Fernández, who succeeded her husband, Néstor Kirchner, as president, is expected to win one of three senate seats in Buenos Aires province, by far the most populous. But if, as pollsters predict, her party fails to win the most votes in what was traditionally a Peronist stronghold, the movement, already rent with division, may look for another leader. Her fall and Mr Macri’s rise are helping to bring about “a realignment of the entire political system”, says Sergio Berensztein, a political scientist. Mr Macri looks likely to become the first democratically elected non-Peronist president to finish his term in office. Business people hope that the result on October 22nd may even presage eight years with Mr Macri in charge, to give him time fully to rebuild the economy. Even so, he will not have a free hand. His Cambiemos (Let’s Change) coalition will remain a minority in both legislative chambers, though probably with a larger share of the seats. As a result, he will continue the non-confrontational approach he has taken during his first two years in office. He has tried to persuade moderate trade-union leaders and Peronist politicians, many of whom loathe Ms Fernández, to accept reforms, painful as they will be in the short run. “Gradualism is now [Mr Macri’s] religion,” says Mr Berensztein. Not that he has marked time. In the past two years he has dismantled exchange controls, dropped most export taxes, devalued the peso, settled a dispute with foreign bondholders, opened up to foreign investors and—most riskily—started to remove Ms Fernández’s massive subsidies of electricity, gas, water and transport. “Only 10% of those costs were covered” by user charges, says Marcos Peña, chief of the cabinet of ministers . “Now we’re covering 50%.” Thanks to such measures, Mr Macri’s first year in office was painful. The economy shrank, wages fell in real terms, inflation shot up to almost 40% and the unemployment rate (hard to measure because a third of workers are off the books) rose above 9% (see chart). This year most signs have pointed the right way, though wages and jobs are recovering slowly and foreign investors are still biding their time. Inflation is down to 22% and falling; growth is back up to nearly 3% and is set to increase next year. If Cambiemos does well in the poll, the pace of reform should quicken. Transport fares and tariffs for other services are likely to rise again. That makes it unlikely that inflation will fall this year to 17%, the target set by the central bank. But subsidy cuts will squeeze the budget deficit, which should help lower inflation in the longer run. The government hopes to slash inflation from its average of more than 20% under the Kirchners to 8-12% by the end of next year and to 5-8% before the next presidential election, in late 2019. Ideally, Mr Macri would also like to cut labour costs, loosen labour laws, close failing state companies and reduce the unproductive public sector that swelled mightily under the Kirchners. He would like, too, to reform pensions, which Ms Fernández rashly bestowed in full on more than 3m people outside the formal economy who had never made contributions. And he is keen to make the courts more independent. Yet he may still be wary of embarking on such controversial ventures. The slide in Ms Fernández’s reputation with the middle class, and infighting in the Peronist movement, which has always contained a wide range of ideology, are for the moment Mr Macri’s greatest political assets. Accusations of corruption and criminal malfeasance against Ms Fernández and her closest associates, several of whom could face lengthy jail sentences, continue to mount. A judge reopened an investigation into allegations that her government had tried to cover up Iran’s involvement in the bombing of a Jewish community centre in 1994. Three years ago the chief investigator into the case was found dead with a bullet wound in the head hours before he was due to explain his findings to parliament. His death has never been explained. All the same, Ms Fernández has a rock-solid base among the Peronist poor, especially in the southern barrios of Buenos Aires, who still revere her for providing them with jobs, welfare and cheap housing and who tend to dismiss the allegations of corruption against her as politically motivated. Kirchneristas routinely castigate Mr Macri as the spoilt son of a rich man; his father, an Italian immigrant, made a fortune as a government contractor. Ms Fernández, now 64, remains a determined and resourceful fighter. Mr Macri could yet fall down in several ways, says Alejandro Catterberg, who heads Poliarquía Consultores, a polling firm. A global or Latin American recession could knock his economic plans askew. Infighting could undermine his coalition. Elisa Carrió, a maverick anti-corruption campaigner and Macri ally with a seat in the lower house of congress, will be quick to flag up signs of skulduggery by any of the president’s less angelic business friends. Mr Macri has been on occasion maladroit. His initial response to the disappearance two months ago of Santiago Maldonado, a young activist who was campaigning for a group of disaffected Mapuche Indians and whose body may have been found on October 17th, was seen by many Argentines as frostily insensitive; Mr Maldonado was reportedly last seen alive in the company of gendarmes. A bigger risk, though, is that Mr Macri’s gradualism will concede too much to Peronism, leaving the state unreformed, its finances shaky and inflation still much too high. Overall, however, the omens have rarely been so promising. “Now is the best moment in the past 20 years for Argentina to change direction,” says Rosendo Fraga, a veteran pundit. That view is widely shared outside Peronist circles. But few who have witnessed Argentina’s roller-coaster history are yet ready to bet on it. Correction (October 22nd, 2017): A previous version of this piece said that inflation averaged 20% of GDP under the Kirchners. The words “of GDP” have no business being in there, and have been removed. This article appeared in the The Americas section of the print edition under the headline "Ready for his close-up"

“Did You Know?” That God desires our worship? How would you like for our God, who is All-knowing, All-powerful, Ever-present and Unchanging to sit down with you and share with you the story of your life — right down to the smallest detail? We have such an account in John 4:1-26 Jesus was leaving Judea and returning to Galilee. On His way, he needed to pass through Samara. In time, He came to the village of Sychar, near the field that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was there, and being tired from the trip, He sat wearily by the well at noontime. In time, a Samaritan woman came to draw water and Jesus said to her, “Please give me a drink.” He was alone at the time because His disciples had gone into the village to buy some food. This may seem like no big deal to us, but we would be wrong. · First, it would be unusual that a Jewish man would even be in Samaria. · Jews tried to avoid contact with Samaritans because they were considered to be mongrels or half-breeds rather than pure Jews. · It would also be very unusual for a Jewish man to strike up a conversation with an unknown Samaritan woman. (There is a lesson we can learn here from our LORD. He knew that one of the quickest ways to break down that strange, distant feeling that you experience when you meet a stranger, is to ask them a favor. That was Jesus’ approach…”Please give me a drink.”) He was sitting there by the well, tired and thirsty, and along comes this woman and He asks her for a drink. She can tell He is a Jew and she is surprised that He even speaks to her, let alone ask her for a favor. In 4:9 she said to Him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. Why are you asking me for a drink?” In 4:10 Jesus said to her, “If you only knew the gift God has for you and who you are speaking to, you would ask me and I would give you living water.” He now has her interest and the two of them strike up a conversation. She sees He doesn’t even have a rope or bucket, yet He is offering her living water. “Sir …. This well is very deep. Where would you get this living water?” (Now, she is thirsty.) Please note — there wasn’t anything wrong with Jacob’s well or the water in it. The problem was it didn’t permanently quench a person’s thirst. They had to keep coming back for more water. Jesus offered this lady, and us, a water that really satisfies the deepest thirst we have — that of the heart and soul. The woman said to Jesus, “Please sir, give me water. Then I’ll never be thirsty again, and I won’t have to come here to get water.” (4:15) There are different kinds of thirsts. There is a physical thirst. There is also a spiritual thirst. This is when the Holy Spirit begins to stir our hearts and we realize we are not right with God. Something is missing. The things of the world don’t satisfy. We long for more. What a great time to begin to seek the LORD to satisfy the thirst we are experiencing. At this point, Jesus tells her to go get her husband, and she replies she doesn’t have one. The LORD already knew that. In fact, he reminds her that she has already had five and that the man she is living with isn’t her husband. I don’t know about you, but about now, I’d be feeling a bit queasy. (How does He know all this about me?) She tries to change the subject and she wants to know why the Jews say Jerusalem is the only place to worship God, while the Samaritans claim that the right place is actually Mt. Gerizim, which stood right before them. Folks, don’t miss what comes next. In 4:21 Jesus said to her “Believe me dear woman, the time is coming when it will no longer matter whether you worship the Father on this mountain or in Jerusalem.” He goes even further in 4:23 and says, “But the time is coming” indeed it is here now ¾ when true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth. The Father is looking for those who will worship Him that way.” In 4:24 He really clarifies that it is not the place ¾ you can worship God wherever you are ¾ it’s the person coming openly and honestly, not trying to hide anything from God who sees all and knows all. Jesus told her, “For God is Spirit, so those who worship Him must worship in spirit and in truth.” Don’t miss a simple statement Jesus made in verse 23: “The Father is looking for those who will worship Him that way.” GOD DESIRES OUR WORSHIP! What is worship? It is recognizing the presence of God and entering into that presence, giving honor and glory to Him, who alone is worthy I love what Chuck Swindoll wrote — “Worship is attributing supreme worth to God, who alone is worthy of it.” He continues, “The purpose of the church is to cultivate worshipers. It’s a place to learn about our God so that our worship and understanding of Him becomes increasingly deeper and more meaningful. It’s a place where we give Him our praise and our gratitude.” God desires our worship. God deserves our worship. He is worthy of our worship. I love what Jesus said to His disciples in 4:34 — “My nourishment comes from doing the will of God, who sent Me, and from finishing His work.” I pray that each of us will be a true worshiper of God because He is worthy. Many thanks to all of you who have blessed us with your prayers, cards and special gifts, this Christmas. Please know that Joyce and I are very grateful with all the love and kindness you have shown us. We love you, Pastor Leonard and Joyce

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- May 6, 2022 - Apr 29, 2022 - Apr 22, 2022 - Apr 15, 2022 - Apr 8, 2022 - Apr 1, 2022 - Mar 25, 2022 - Mar 18, 2022 - Mar 11, 2022 - Mar 4, 2022 - Feb 25, 2022 - Feb 18, 2022 - Feb 11, 2022 - Feb 4, 2022 - Jan 28, 2022 Jan 21, 2022 - Jan 14, 2022 - Jan 7, 2022 - Dec 31, 2021 - Dec 24, 2021 - Dec 17, 2021 - Dec 10, 2021 - Dec 3, 2021 - Nov 26, 2021 - Nov 19, 2021 - Nov 12, 2021 - Nov 5, 2021 - Oct 29, 2021 - Oct 15, 2021 - Oct 8, 2021 - Oct 1, 2021 - Sep 24, 2021 - Sep 17, 2021 - Sep 10, 2021 - Sep 3, 2021 - Aug 27, 2021 - Aug 20, 2021 - Aug 13, 2021 - Aug 6, 2021 - July 30, 2021 - July 23, 2021 - July 16, 2021 - July 9, 2021 - July 2, 2021 - June 25, 2021 - June 18, 2021 - June 11, 2021 - June 4, 2021 - May 28, 2021 - May 21, 2021 - May 14, 2021 - May 7, 2021 - April 30, 2021 - April 23, 2021 - April 16, 2021 - April 9, 2021 - April 2, 2021 - March 26, 2021 - March 19, 2021 - March 12, 2021 - March 5, 2021 APRIL 30, 2021 - SATURDAY 11:30 AM — PRO Act Rally in Alexandria - Defund MPD updates and information - Harassment and grievance officer town hall postponed May Day demonstration — get Warner on board with the PRO Act Tomorrow is May Day, or International Workers’ Day — a holiday commemorating the hard-won gains of the labor movement and ongoing struggles of the working class around the world. This year, there’s no better way to celebrate our collective power than rallying to pass the Protecting the Right to Organize Act. If enacted, the PRO Act would be the most important piece of pro-worker legislation since the New Deal era. The bill would eliminate so-called right to work laws across the country, crack down on illegal union busting tactics, expand workers’ ability to strike and make it significantly easier to form a union and bargain for a contract. The PRO Act would not only advance labor rights but also build a path to achieve a Green New Deal. An elected official in our own backyard, Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia, is one of the last three Democrat holdouts on the PRO Act. That’s why we’re showing up to his Alexandria home on May Day to demand that he stand with workers. Here’s the battle plan: - Meet at Windmill Hill Park (500 South Lee St. in Alexandria, VA) at 11:30am ET. From there, we will rally and drop a petition at the senator’s door, calling on him to co-sponsor the bill. - A carpool will be available to drive people between the King Street-Old Town metro and Windmill Hill Park. If you need a ride (or can offer rides), please fill out this form. (Organized by our comrades from Baltimore DSA!) - And don’t forget to RSVP at this link. The rally will feature speakers from Our Revolution, Virginia Justice Democrats, La ColectiVA and other local labor leaders. We’ll also be joined by Virginia and Baltimore DSA chapter members. Looking for other ways to engage with the campaign? - Check out DSA’s online resource to learn more about the PRO Act. - DSA, in coalition with IUPAT and hundreds of other labor unions and progressive organizations, has helped make more than 700,000 calls in key states to pressure senators to sign on to the bill. We’ve flipped Sens. Angus King (I-ME) and Joe Manchin (D-WV), but still need to get Warner and Arizona’s Mark Kelly and Kyrsten Sinema on board. Sign up here to phonebank and help us keep up the pressure after May Day. - This Saturday at 7pm ET, join Reps. Rashida Tlaib and Andy Levin for a talk on the importance of unions and why we need to pass the PRO Act, hosted by Michigan DSA chapters. Eyes are on us. Updates from the Defund MPD Campaign This week, three quick updates from the Defund MPD working group: - Sign the Defund MPD Coalition petition to demand that the DC Council defund MPD to REFUND our communities! - Want to help DC residents make their voices heard in the DC Council on defunding MPD? Phonebank with us this Sunday, May 2, 5 – 7pm. - If an organization you’re in wants to endorse the Defund MPD Coalition demands, fill out this form! HGO Town Hall Postponed and Applications Reopened Reflecting on the application process and outreach for Harassment and Grievance Officers (HGOs) and current applicants, the Steering Committee would like to reopen the application for HGOs and do more targeted outreach to encourage a larger and more diverse applicant pool. This means that we’ll also postpone the town hall and will aim to reschedule it for Thursday, May 13. HGOs and the commission they will lead must address both informal and formal grievances related to implicit and explicit discrimination based on members’ racial identities. As such, this steering committee has committed to targeted outreach to BIPOC members about applying for the HGO position. We will also do intentional, targeted outreach about the position to chapter formations that support or represent other protected classes, including the Queer Section and Socialist Feminist Caucus. Please consider applying to be an HGO or a member of the Harassment Policy and Grievance Procedure Commission! Fill out the form here. The Washington Socialist is our chapter’s monthly publication — produced by volunteer writers and editors on our Publications Team. Only a brief intro this month. May Day is a busy time for socialists — and the local Left is mobilized and on the move. Not much time to write: lotta action on the streets, lotta moving parts, lotta plans. Let’s see if we can sink it. Here’s what we’ve got this month … The Metro DC Mobilization Model — A long assessment of Metro DC DSA’s member mobilization tactics. Our authors suggest that they’ve found a strong way to turn paper-members into politically engaged socialists. On Climate, Biden Falls Far Short — Biden’s infrastructure plan is a fair start to mobilizing, but no one should mistake it for a Green New Deal. My Socialist Kick-Start — Somewhere embedded in all of our socialist souls is the memory of that first book — fiction or nonfiction — that set us on our course to socialism. One member recounts a familiar journey. How Racism Hurts All of Us — In this summary of Heather McGhee’s The Sum of Us, we are reminded how crucial racial divisions between the working class are to upholding capitalist exploitation. Reflections from 2000: The Communists of Shaw — A short article republished from an old edition of the Socialist recounts far-left activity in one of the District’s most cherished neighborhoods. Good Links from April — Sleep through March? We’ve got you covered. Here’s an article roundup from April. Metro DC DSA’s Vaccine Outreach Updates Our comrades in the Medicare for All Working Group returned to the Woodner Apartments on Thursday, April 29, to speak to the residents of the 1,181-unit building. We helped the Woodner Tenants’ Union book vaccine appointments for residents while also collecting the contact information of those who need help with the application for the STAY DC rental assistance program. After the chapter’s May Day action, we will be canvassing the Marbury Plaza apartments in Ward 8. We will be hosted by the tenants’ association at Marbury Plaza and will be joined by organizers from Stomp Out Slumlords. Please meet at the apartment building (2300 Good Hope Rd SE) at 3:30pm on Saturday, May 1. Please reach out to Gayatri S. or Abel A. on Slack if you would like to join us so we can add you to the canvassers Signal chat. You can also fill out this Google form to get regular updates on our vaccine outreach efforts and how you can volunteer. Discussion Sessions on Reforms to Candidate Endorsements The chapter’s Political Engagement Committee (PEC) is in the process of reforming our electoral endorsement program. As part of this process, the PEC has held two meetings to discuss updates to our chapter’s endorsement process. Upcoming meetings will focus on our chapter’s candidate questionnaire and the PEC’s criteria for recommending candidates for endorsement. The schedule for these meetings is below: - [New!] Endorsement Recommendation Session #1, Sunday, May 2, 2 – 3:30pm ET (RSVP) - [New!] Endorsement Recommendation Session #2, Wednesday, May 5, 7 – 8:30pm ET (RSVP) These sessions are scheduled for 90 minutes, so there will be plenty of time for discussion, interaction and planning among chapter members who attend. Please come with lots of ideas! Outside of the discussion sessions, chapter members can still provide input via the endorsement process form, the questionnaire updates form and the endorsement recommendation form. As always, please feel free to send questions to the Steering Committee at [email protected] or to PEC Chair Stu K on Slack (@Stu K). Labor Working Group Updates A few updates from our Labor Working Group: - THIS SUNDAY, May Day at Mark Warner’s House Virginia DSAers will be rallying in Charlottesville, Richmond, Norfolk and Alexandria demanding that Sen. Mark Warner listen to Virginians over Amazon and sign on to the PRO Act. Metro DC DSA’s rally in Alexandria begins at noon! Rides from the King Street metro station (about 1 mile from the rally point) are available on a first-come, first-served basis. RSVP here. - NEXT MONDAY, Labor Speaker Series Our next LSS will feature Jana Silverman, a member of OPEIU Local 2 and the DSA International Committee’s Labor Subcommittee. May’s LSS will be on Monday, May 10th at 7pm. RSVP here! - MAY 5, Virtual Rally for Essential Workers’ Bill of Rights On May 5, DC Jobs With Justice and the Metro Washington Labor Council will hold a virtual rally demanding that Mayor Bowser enact the Essential Workers’ Bill of Rights to ensure protections for these front-line workers in DC. RSVP here. Fund-A-Thon Campaign benefitting DC Abortion Fund We are just $800 away from our team goal of our benefit goal! Join us May 8 at 10am in Mitchell Park for a yoga class led by one of our comrades. There are five more spots available, so sign up today! On May 25, we will host a Zoom trivia night along with local abortion rights community organizer RJ Lucas of Abortion AF. Teams can sign up here. MDC DSA CALENDAR OF EVENTS Saturday, May 1 11:30am – 3pm | May Day Action Join us on May 1 as we rally in support of the PRO Act! Let’s tell Sen. Warner that he needs to stand with working people and help pass the most progressive labor bill in generations. Sunday, May 2 2 – 4:30pm | MoCo DSA May Branch Meeting 5 – 6:30pm | Medicare for All Work Group Weekly Meeting 5 – 7pm | Defund MPD Phonebank Monday, May 3 7 – 8pm | NoVA Branch Office Hours Tuesday, May 4 6 – 6:30pm | Medicare for All Working Group: Research Team Wednesday, May 5 2 – 4pm | DC Funk Rally to #FreeTheVaccine for Everyone, Everywhere The surge in COVID-19 deaths in India has proven that a global pandemic requires a global solution. Join a coalition of health justice organizations, including Metro DC DSA, for the DC Funk Rally to #FreeTheVaccine as we call on the Biden administration to support the TRIPS waiver at the World Trade Organization. Meet at the National Mall (4th St & Madison Dr NW), starting at 2pm. 5:30 – 6:30pm | NoVA Tenant Organizing Planning Meeting Thursday, May 6 5:30 – 7:30pm | Defund MPD Phone Bank Saturday, May 8 10 – 11am | Fund-A-Thon Yoga in the Park 11am – 1pm | PG County Branch Ecosocialism WG Meeting Sunday, May 9 5 – 6:30pm | Medicare for All Working Group Weekly Meeting Monday, May 10 6 – 8pm | Queer Caucus Happy Hour 7 – 8:30pm | May Labor Speaker Series Join Metro DC DSA’s Labor Working Group for our monthly Labor Speaker Series event! For May, we’ll be joined by Jana Silverman, member of the Labor Subcommittee of DSA’s International Committee and member of OPEIU Local 2. Jana will speak on her history as a labor activist in the US and abroad and her work at the Solidarity Center supporting the international worker movement. Wednesday, May 12 5:30 – 7:30pm | Defund MPD Phone Bank Thursday, May 13 7 – 8:30pm | NoVA Executive Meeting 7 – 9pm | SocFem Grrrlz Night Social Hour Note: Currently, all SocFem gatherings and discussions are welcoming only those who identify as womxn, nonbinary people or those of marginalized genders. We ask that men do not participate at this time. Saturday, May 15 7 – 8:30pm | NoVA Book Club: The Happiness Industry Join the next NoVa Book Club to discuss The Happiness Industry by William Davies. Registration and book details at link. Sunday, May 16 5 – 6:30pm | Medicare for All Working Group Weekly Meeting 6 – 7:30pm | Defund MPD Working Group – Monthly Meeting Sunday, May 23 3 – 5pm | General Body Meeting | May ALLIED EVENTS CALENDAR Saturday, May 1 7:30pm | Slavery By Another Name: May Day Teach In and Noise Demo Join the No New Jails Coalition as we discuss the history of slavery from the plantation to the prisons as well as the legacy of prison strikes and resistance. We will also participate in a noise demo to show love to our loved ones and community comrades behind bars and continue to demand that the city #FreeThemAll and #DecarcerateDC. Meet us at the Stadium-Armory Metro Station at 7:30pm on Saturday, May 1! And BYON (bring your own noisemakers) — pots, pans, drums, kazoos, horns, ANYTHING! And since it’ll get dark, bring your lights too! Wednesday, May 5 DC just received $2.5 billion in federal aid and has a substantial rainy day fund. It is critical that Mayor Bowser use these funds to improve the lives of the workers who risked their lives to keep all of us safe. If enacted, the DC Essential Workers’ Bill of Rights would guarantee every essential worker: two weeks of COVID-19 sick leave; hazard pay; paid bereavement leave; presumptive eligibility for COVID-19 workers’ compensation; and stronger workplace safety. Hear directly from essential workers about why we must enact the DC Essential Workers’ Bill of Rights. With your support we can make these policies a reality. Saturday, May 8 7:30pm | DC Labor Chorus 23rd Annual Spring Sing-Along Concert Join the DC Labor Chorus for a virtual celebration of spring with some of our favorite songs! The chorus has chosen the best sing-along songs from their 23-year repertoire — some of your old faves as well as new songs inspired by recent events. Join on Zoom or livestream on Facebook! Free, but donations gratefully accepted. NATIONAL DSA HIGHLIGHTS Friday, April 30 7pm | Anti-Racist Movements in Brazil: Activist Series – Iêda Leal Around the world, Black-led movements are raising the stakes in our collective struggles. This discussion series with leading Black and Indigenous militants from across Brazil spotlights their experiences in organizing against state violence, workplace exploitation and structural racism everywhere from education to health care. … more at link 8:30pm | Impunity of an Empire: The Cost of Plunder in the Philippines and the Resistance Hear from Filipino solidarity activists about the historical relationship between the US and the Philippines and the dire consequences of its colonial dynamics. With updates on the current situation in the Philippines under the Duterte dictatorship … more at link Saturday, May 8 3pm | DSA Q&A feat. the PRO Act Interested in DSA but haven’t joined yet? Looking to get involved in the fights to stop evictions, win Medicare for All, defund the police or pass a Green New Deal, but unsure how to get started? Join DSA leaders from across the country to talk about how passing the PRO Act is central to our goals. RSVP here. DC Labor FilmFest Launches on May Day The 2021 DC Labor FilmFest launches with the Global Labor Film Festival presentation of the new film HAYMARKET: The Bomb, The Anarchists, The Labor Struggle. You’ll be able to watch the film online at your convenience starting on April 28. FilmFest director Chris Garlock will host a discussion with director Adrian Prawica and labor historians Joe McCartin (Georgetown University) and Steven Brier (CUNY School of Labor) on May Day as part of the 2021 Global Labor Film Festival. Register here. Viva La Raza X Heal Da Homies May Day Flea Market On Saturday, May 1 from 2 – 6pm, Heal Da Homies will be hosting a flea market in Adams Morgan Plaza. All proceeds go to support DC mutual aid and organizers! Pantry Tacos with Sohla | Instagram Live On Sunday, May 2 at 5pm, join DC Fridge Collective for a virtual cooking demonstration using items found in DCFC’s vessels! DCFC has also been looking for fridge mechanics recently, so please reach out if you have this skill! Audelia Community Response Team (ACRT) Cherry Blossom Fundraiser Celebrate spring and raise money for a great cause by registering for ACRT’s Spring Art Workshop Series on how to make flower crowns and springtime collages. All funds will support the ACRT, a mutual aid network based in Langley Park that has been supporting immigrant, undocumented and mixed-status families with food, essential items, academic support and COVID-19 testing throughout the pandemic. Workshops take place on May 7 and 8. If you’d like to reserve supplies provided by the event organizers, the priority registration deadline is this Friday, April 30 at 5pm. Click here for all details and registration info. Publications Schedule: May updates are published Fridays, May 7, 14, 21 and 28. The June issue of the Washington Socialist will be published Friday, June 4. WHERE’S the #@%&ing Zoom link!?!? Are you trying to join an MDC DSA event that you RSVP’d for but can’t find the Zoom link? Don’t throw your laptop out the window! Here’s the solution: Go to your confirm or reminder email for the event and click “Click here to view the event details.” Zoom link! Conversely, you can always re-register for the event to access the link. Our Slack platform, with numerous channels for all our caucuses, branches, campaigns and working groups, is a great place to get connected with the kind of socialist work YOU want to do in DSA. Are you an MDC DSA member who wonders how to get on our chapter Slack? Just email [email protected] and identify yourself as a member. Put “request for #Slack” in the subject line. Use the email address national DSA knows you by. If you are a new member, forward the email national DSA initially sent you acknowledging your status. How is Republican Governor Larry Hogan one of the most popular governors in the country, despite governing a deep-blue state? Dan Watson examines this and reviews Hogan’s COVID “victory” memoir in Current Affairs. For those of you who like reporting about organizations, Aaron Freedman investigates the identity crisis at the progressive Jewish advocacy group IfNotNow in Jewish Currents. In New York Magazine, Sarah Jones discusses the liberal rehabilitation of George W. Bush and the murderous, oppressive legacy of his “compassionate conservatism.” Santi Elijah Holley, writing for The New Republic, talks with veteran Black Panthers about how Hollywood mythologizes the group and conveniently erases the members who, to this day, remain imprisoned. Good listen: After spending the first season investigating (and retelling the story of) the Iraq War, Brendan James and Noah Kulwin explore the Cuban Revolution in Blowback, season two. From Common Dreams: “‘How can Americans who don’t watch Fox News and find Tucker Carlson’s conduct repugnant stop subsidizing his $10 million salary?’ … Until companies like AT&T, Comcast, Spectrum and Verizon step up to break the bundle — or we see policy changes favoring consumer ‘a la carte’ — cutting the cord is the only option for those who don’t want a cent of their monthly bills to subsidize hate and disinformation.” Also from Common Dreams: “With people dying in India’s streets, Biden’s failure to share vaccine doses, ingredients, and tech is becoming a moral failure that will haunt America … The pictures coming back from India — and the world’s worst COVID-19 outbreak since the pandemic was declared over a year ago — look more like images from a medieval Black Death plague than anything you’d expect to see in the 21st century.” Ages have come and gone, kingdoms and powers and dynasties have risen and fallen, old glories and ancient wisdoms have been turned into dust, heroes and sages have been forgotten and many a mighty and fearsome god has been hurled into the lightless chasms of oblivion. But ye, Plebs, Populace, People, Rabble, Mob, Proletariat, live and abide forever.

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We are accepting Summer applications ONLY. Apply today! Summer Farm Apprenticeship June - August 2013 If you are a young adult seeking hands-on experience growing food and gaining practical skills work with us at Eden Village Camp, one hour north of New York City. We are seeking several individuals for a summer apprenticeship through August 2013. Who You Are: Extensive experience is not necessary. Farming and education is a continuous learning process, but experimental curiosity is required. Our FAQ page has a list of interests you should probably have for an optimal educational experience. How You'll Grow: If you build it, you can do it. We offer a plethora of opportunities to develop yourself. All that is required is active participation and a desire to know. Gain experience with: - Jewish Environmental Pedagogy - Sustainable Agricultural Training - DIY & Practical Skill-Building - Jewish Community Living - Seminars and Networking Apprentices receive full room and board for the duration of the program, as well as a stipend. Submit Your Application Apply today to grow your own! - Learn more about Eden Village Camp. - Learn more about the Farm at Eden Village. - Explore the FAQ page. More questions? Contact us at [email protected]. Farm Apprentices 2013 Avigail Katzman was born in Omaha, Nebraska and is a 2011 graduate from the School of Visual Arts in NYC. She tries to make something every day whether it be a photograph, a twig sculpture, new friend, or even a meal. She loves travel, tradition, working with her hands, and freshly baked bread. She is a full believer in that the process of creating is equally as important as the creation. Ashley is a passionate environmentalist working to inspire people of all ages to become better stewards of our planet. Ashley has a B.A in Environmental Studies from the University of Pittsburgh. She comes to us from Philadelphia, PA where she was doing outreach and education around clean water issues. Age: 26 on May 14! Hometown: Philadelphia, PA Favorite food: Green Curry Why I applied for the Farm Educator Apprenticeship: I want to deepen my knowledge about small-scale organic agriculture, especially chickens and goats. This will make me a better educator, as well as a better world citizen. I also hope to learn more about Judaism and it’s intersection with a healthy environment. Delight at the beauty of seeds lovingly planted in gardens and hearts alike drew Shivonne, age 31, to join the farm at Eden Village. She hails from the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains of Boone, North Carolina. Her favorite food is quickly becoming the meals she prepares with so much love for the ones she loves! I am Casey. I am 22 years old, from Cleveland, Ohio. My favorite food is pesto pasta. I recently graduated from The Ohio State University. In my time there, I worked for the Office of Sustainability, studied Environmental Geography, and did many forms of environmental advocacy and activism. I traveled to Peru, where I studied Indigenous Spirituality and Permaculture. When I returned home, I became certified in permaculture. Through sustainable agriculture I have discovered how fulfilling it is to grow food and develop a deeper relationship with the food that we eat as well as the the earth, and one-another while getting our hands dirty, empowering ourselves, and working towards self-resiliency. I chose to apply for the Farm Educator Apprenticeship because I see it as an opportunity to spend time doing exactly all of that and more. I enjoy working with kids, being creative and goofy, building community, doing yoga, dance, art, travel, cooking, drum circles, creating positive energy, building things, hiking, educating, learning, and being challenged! I am 23 years old and grew up in San Antonio, TX. I love Vegan food and Tex-mex. Nothing beats a spicy sweet potato enchilada. I applied for the Farm Apprenticship so I could spend time outside, working with my intuition and my hands in a beautiful community.

Israel plans to declare legal four unauthorized West Bank settler outposts, a court document showed on Thursday, days before U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry returns to the region to try to restart peace talks. “I had to be the only goy in the Valley eating tongue when I was 11,” comedian Adam Carolla said. Host of the popular podcast “The Adam Carolla Show,” he was referring to food fed to him by his maternal stepgrandfather, Laszlo Gorog. Serving a community of 600,000, The Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles is the largest Jewish weekly outside New York City. Our award-winning paper reaches over 150,000 educated, involved and affluent readers each week. Subscribe here.

Israeli police detained 10 women, including the sister of the American comic Sarah Silverman, as they tried to pray at a Jerusalem holy site, the head of a liberal Jewish women's group said. Anat Hoffman, who was among those detained, said the women were stopped because they were wearing religious garb that Orthodox Judaism reserves for men only. The incident occurred at the Western Wall, one of Judaism's holiest sites. Silverman's sister Susan, a Jerusalem rabbi from the liberal Reform stream of Judaism, was detained along with her teenage daughter. Sarah Silverman wrote on her Facebook page that she was "SO proud" of her sister and niece for their "civil disobedience". The original post included more explicit language typical of Silverman's humour. The women belong to "Women of the Wall", a liberal group that goes to the Western Wall each month to worship. They conduct certain rituals, such as wearing prayer shawls and skullcaps and singing out loud, practices reserved for men under strict Orthodox interpretations of Judaism. Hoffman, who was among those detained, is chairwoman of the group. Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said the women were detained because they acted against court-ordered regulations that bar women from wearing prayer shawls at the Western Wall so as not to offend Orthodox Jewish worshippers. Rosenfeld said the women were released after several hours.

Limmud FSU Presenters 2017 What is Limmud? What are the Principles? Also, learn some of our History and more. Ilya Bratman Executive Director Hillel at Baruch College, CUNY llya Bratman holds the position of the Executive Director at the Hillel at Baruch College since November 2013. In 1992, Ilya immigrated from Moscow, Russia to the US. He graduated from the University of Pittsburgh in 1999. Upon his graduation, Mr. Bratman enlisted in the United States Armed Forces. He served honorably for over four active years and four reserve, including deployments to Korea, Germany and Iraq. After returning from active military in 2004, Ilya Bratman received a Master’s Degree in Applied Linguistics and Education from the University of Pittsburgh in 2006. In 2006 Ilya ‘immigrated’ to New York. He worked as a Real Estate agent and in 2008, he began to work in the Jewish community including as an instructor at the Sinai Academy in Brooklyn, Director of Jewish Programs at the Kings Bay Y in Brooklyn, and as the Project Manager of Limmud FSU USA, before becoming the Executive Director at the Hillel at Baruch College. In his spare time, Ilya enjoys long-distance running, playing soccer and other sports, writing, playing guitar and watching the Steelers. Ilya speaks Russian fluently and is proficient in Hebrew and German. Ilya with his wife, Sonya and son, Gabriel in New Jersey.

“The United States will encourage a peace and really a great peace deal” between Israel and the Palestinians, but they have to negotiate it themselves, Trump said at a joint press conference with Netanyahu in Washington, DC on Wednesday.“Both sides will have to make compromises.” “I want the Israeli people to know that the US stands with Israel in the struggle against terrorism, ”the US president added, calling Israel a “cherished ally.” “Israel has no better ally than the US,” Netanyahu said, “and the US has no better ally than Israel.” The Israeli PM praised Trump’s commitment to resist “slander and boycotts” of his country in international bodies, and said both Israel and the US are under attack “by one malevolent force – radical Islamic terrorism.” Asked if he preferred a one-state or a two-state solution, Trump said, “I’m happy with the one they like the best,” referring to both Israelis and the Palestinians. “I’d like to see you hold off on settlements for a little bit,” he told Netanyahu, and said the US was “looking with great care” at relocating the embassy to Jerusalem, thus recognizing Israel’s claim to the city as its capital. Israel had two prerequisites for any peace settlement, Netanyahu said. “First, the Palestinians must recognize the Jewish state, they must stop calling for Israel’s destruction… Second, Israel must retain security control over all of the area west of the Jordan River.” If those requirements are not met, Palestine would become “another failed state, another Islamist dictatorship that will not work for peace, but work to destroy us,” Netanyahu said. Asked what compromises the two sides might have to make, Trump said the Israelis “will have to show some flexibility” and signal they want to make a deal, while “Palestinians have to give up some of the hate they’ve been taught from a very young age.” Netanyahu also criticized the nuclear deal the six world powers had reached with Iran in 2015, accusing Tehran of wanting to build a nuclear arsenal – “a hundred bombs” – and intercontinental missiles that could reach the US. Iranian ballistic missiles are inscribed with “Israel must be destroyed” in Hebrew, Netanyahu said, adding that he welcomed the Trump administration’s determination to make Iran pay for “fomenting terrorism” in the Middle East. Efforts by the Trump administration to review the nuclear deal were spearheaded by National Security Advisor Michael Flynn, but he resigned on Monday amid accusations that he’d misled administration officials about his talks with Russian diplomats during the transition. Trump called Flynn a “wonderful man… treated very unfairly by the media,” but did not address the question of how his resignation would affect the administration’s relations with Iran. When an Israeli reported asked Trump about the alleged uptick in anti-Semitism and xenophobia following his election, the US president said he would do everything in his power to unify the country, and that his term in office would see “a lot of love.” “There is no greater supporter of the Jewish people and the Jewish state than President Donald Trump,” Netanyahu said, concluding the press conference.

Posted - 18 Sep 2003 : 22:22:42 | I offer the following to those of you who keep intermingling the word "jew", with Hebrew and/or Israelite, as if "jew" is synonymous with Hebrew/Israelite/Judahite. Such is not the case. The brainwashing is so complete, due to media propaganda, that most won't believe it, even when it come straight from the HORSES' mouths. Also, the word "jew" DOES NOT APPEAR in the Bible until II Kings 16:6, some 1500 years after Abram, whom so many liars are wont to call a "jew", along with the 12 desciples, and Jesus. Under the heading of "A brief History of the Terms for Jew" , in the 1980 Jewish Almanac is the following: "Strictly speaking it is incorrect to call an Ancient Israelite a 'Jew' or to call a contemporary Jew an Israelite or a Hebrew." (1980 Jewish Almanac, p. 3). " We Jews have spoiled the blood of all races; We have tarnished and broken their power; we have made everything foul, rotten, decomposed and decayed." (The Way to Zion, by Munzer) They have always claimed they are not a race! [ When that is expedient for them, some of them do ........ -- James ] Well, read what they themselves have written in their own encyclopaedia. THEY DO NOT BELONG TO THE WHITE RACE! The Jews admit they are not even Whites! See what they have written about themselves: Report from: The Jewish Post & Opinion Friday, June 28, 1968 Jews Are Not Whites, Professor Tells Rabbis BOSTON- A political scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who has been speaking to a Jewish convention over the past few months, told the Reform Rabbis meeting here that Jews are not white. Speaking on the Jewish academician, Prof. Leonard J. Fein, explained that "we are not white symbolically, and we are not white literally". He then added that we should "not permit ourselves to be lumped together with white America, for that is not where we belong."CONTINUING, he explained that "We are too much an oppressed people, still, and too much a rejected people, even in this country, to accept the designation 'white.'. and to count ourselves as white, moreover, Is to deny our brotherhood with the Yernenites (Yemenites ?) and the Kurdistanis in Israel, with the B'nei Yisrael from India and the Black Jews of New York." [If the "jews" are a race, how can there be black, yellow, whites and admixtures who claim to be "jews" ??? What about the black Falasha "jews" of Ethiopia? -- James ] Employing a theme which he used in addressing other Jewish convention, Dr. Fein asserted that Jews are not black, "We are Jews", he went on. "and because we are Jews, and not white, and not black, we must see to it, as a community, that we do not come to act as whites, whether by choice or because others so identify us. Not only because it is forbidden us, not only because we of all people ought to know better, but because we shall cut ourselves off from our own future if we do." He then went on to relate this view to the Negro. "And because we are Jews, it seems to me that we are entitled to insist that there be a special relationship between us and Negroes; a relationship based not upon a common enemy, not upon a common history, but instead upon a common purpose of teaching America at long last what pluralism is all about." [ Yes mr. "jew"; it is about Genocide of the WHITE RACE. Elanor - The Red - Roosevelt, stated that she yearned " for the day when there will only be a BROWN RACE on earth." --- James ] Now since we have the above confession from the impostor's mouth [ Revelation 2:9 & 3:9 ], that "jews" are NOT WHITE, let us see from a few BIBLE VERSES, what color the Hebrew/Israelite people are. 1Sam 16:12 And he sent, and brought him in. Now he was ruddy, and withal of a beautiful countenance, and goodly to look to. And the LORD said, Arise, anoint him: for this is he. ruddy (rude) -dier, -diest 1 having a healthy red color [a ruddy complexion] 2 red or reddish 3 [Brit., etc. Colloq.] confounded: an intensive: also used adverbially [euphemism for bloody] [ME rudi < OE rudig < rudu, red: see rudd] (C)1995 Zane Publishing, Inc. (C)1994, 1991, 1988 Simon & Schuster, Inc. 1Sam 17:42 And when the Philistine looked about, and saw David, he disdained him: for he was but a youth, and ruddy, and of a fair countenance. Song 5:10 My beloved is white and ruddy, the chiefest among ten thousand. [ Oh gee guys; there it is ..... RIGHT THERE IN THE Bible; My beloved is WHITE ........ you DO believe the Bible, DON'T YOU??????? -- James ] Lam 4:7 Her Nazarites were purer than snow, they were whiter than milk, they were more ruddy in body than rubies, their polishing was of sapphire: [ Ruddy means that one able to SHOW BLOOD IN THE FACE ! You BLUSH; BLOOD rushes to yer FACE AND EARS ........ Adam, Hebrew word # 120 means: man; human being DERIVED FROM Hebrew # 119, 'adam which means: RUDDY of Nazarites. To CAUSE TO SHOW RED (sounds like BLUSHING to me) -- James ] Also, we have the little matter of Rebbekah's brother Laban. Laban is Hebrew # 3837 which means .......... gasp ......... WHITE ! ( same as Hebrew # 3836 which means WHITE, which is derived from Hebrew # 3835 which means " TO BE WHITE". Which means that Rebbekah and Laban's PARENTS were WHITE HEBREWS, just like Adam, Abram, Isaac, Jacob and the TWELVE PATRIARCHS who became known as ISRAELITES, NOT "jews", BECAUSE Jacob's name was changed to ................gasp .............. there it is; right there in the Bible ............... ISRAEL. Notice his name was NOT changed to "jew", but rather, Israel. READ IT AGAIN. Under the heading of "A brief History of the Terms for Jew" , in the 1980 Jewish Almanac is the following: "Strictly speaking it is incorrect to call an Ancient Israelite a 'Jew' or to call a contemporary Jew an Israelite or a Hebrew." (1980 Jewish Almanac, p. 3). In Revelation 2:9 & 3:9, Jesus said it is BLASPHEMY for someone to call themselves a "jew" - the original was Son of Judah - when they are not, but ARE of the SYNAGOGUE of SATAN! The late Louis D. Brandeis (another Jewish traitor), long a Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, in his book, "The Jewish Problem-How To Solve It." wrote: "Let us recognize that we Jews are a distinct nationality of which every Jew, whatever his country, his nation or shade of belief, is necessarily a member...Organize, Organize, Organize, until every Jew in America must stand up and be counted, or prove himself wittingly or unwittingly of the few who are against their own people." By this statement [jew]Justice Brandeis really claimed dual citizenship for all Jews, and certainly degenerated to appeals to Jewish exclusiveness and nationalistic pride and loyalty. [ From: Origin of the Jews by Willie Martin ] The First Jews First let us make it abundantly clear that there were no Jews prior to the 1700s, for the letter "J" had not been invented prior to that time. "J: This letter has been added to the English Alphabet in modern days; the letter I being written formerly in words where J is now used. It seems to have had the sound of y, in many words, as it still has in the German. The English sound of this letter may be expressed by dsh, or edth. A compound sound coinciding exactly with of g, in genius; the French , with the articulation d preceding it. It is the tenth letter of the English Alphabet. (Noah Webster's First Edition of an American Dictionary of the English Language 1828 Edition) "Male and female created he them; and blessed them, and called their name Adam, in the day when they were created. And Adam lived an hundred and thirty years, and begat a son in his own likeness, after his image; and called his name Seth." Please note that neither Cain nor Able is mentioned in Adam's line. Therefore, we can conclude from this that neither Cain nor Able were Adam's children. For if they had (been) God certainly would have instructed that they be noted as such. False Doctrine Placed in the Scriptures By Kenite Scribes In the Books of The Chronicles we find recorded there the names and the genealogies of the Tribes of Israel and where their portions of the inheritance is listed. "These were the sons of Caleb the son of Hur, the firstborn of Ephratah; Shobal the father of Kirjath-jearim, Salma the father of Bethlehem, Hareph the father of Beth-gader. And Shobal the father of Kirjath-jearim had sons; Haroeh, and half of the Manahethites. And the families of Kirjath-jearim; the Ithrites, and the Puhites, and the Shumathites, and the Mishraites; of them came the Zareathites, and the Eshtaulites. The sons of Salma; Bethlehem, and the Netophathites, Ataroth, the house of Joab, and half of the Manahethites, the Zorites. ‘AND' THE FAMILIES OF THE SCRIBES which dwelt at Jabez; the Tirathites, the Shimeathites, and Suchathites. THESE ARE THE KENITES that came of Hemath, the father of the house of Rechab." (1 Chronicles 2:50-55) Other genealogies in the Bible go into great detail and never leaves out a son! (Especially a firstborn son) If one reads Genesis 4:1 correctly, as depicted, it is not there either. Why is Cain totally left out?? Cain's descendants are mentioned separately in Genesis 4:17-24 and it doesn't list Adam as the father of Cain! WHY??? The next place we find Cain in the Scriptures is Genesis 15:19 and we will have to read verses 18 through 21: "In the same day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates: The Kenites, and the Kenizzites, and the Kadmonites, And the Hittites, and the Perizzites, and the Rephaims, And the Ammonites, and the Canaanites, and the Girga****es, and the Jebusites." (Genesis 15:18-21) (KJV) One of these nations among the Canaanites was the KENITES (#7017 Strong's) which were DESCENDANTS OF CAIN. Being that Cain was of the SATANIC SEEDLINE, he would infect his satanic blood AMONG ALL THESE TEN NATIONS. And the "Kenizzites" were Edomites. In the Peake's Commentary on the bible, page 116 we find this about this mixed group of nations spoken of in Genesis 15:19-21: "When the Israelites entered Canaan they found there a VERY MIXED population generally designated by the term Amorite or Canaanite." The Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible, Abridged by Ralph Earle, page 38, says: "The Kenites. Here are ten nations mentioned, though afterwards reckoned but seven; see Deuteronomy 7:1; Acts 13:19. Probably some of them which existed in Abram's time had been BLENDED with others before the time of Moses, so that seven only out of the ten then remained." Kenites: "[KEE nights] (metalsmiths)-- the name of a wandering tribe of people who were associated with the Midianites (Judges 1:16) and, later, with the Amalekites (1 Samuel 15:6). The Kenites lived in the desert regions of Sinai, Midian, Edom, Amalek, and the Negev. The Bible first mentions the Kenites as one of the groups that lived in Canaan during the time of Abraham (Genesis 15:19); their territory was to be taken by the Israelites (Numbers 24:21-22). The Kenites were metal craftsmen who may have traced their ancestry to TUBAL-CAIN (a descendant of Cain) (Genesis 4:22). (from Nelson's Illustrated Bible Dictionary) (Copyright (C) 1986, Thomas Nelson Publishers) The Wycliff Bible Commentary, editors: Charles F. Pfeiffer & Everett F. Harrison has this to say on page 8, and this quote will cover Genesis 3:14-15: "CURSED (arűr) ART THOU. The Lord singled out the originator and instigator of the temptation for special condemnation and degradation. From that moment he must crawl in the dust and even feed on it. He would slither his way along in disgrace, and hatred would be directed against him from all directions. Man would always regard him as a symbol of the degradation of the one who slandered God (cf. Isaiah 65:25). HE WAS TO REPRESENT NOT MERELY THE SERPENT RACE, BUT THE POWER OF THE EVIL KINGDOM. As long as life continued, men would hate him and seek to destroy him. I WILL PUT ENMITY. The word "ębâ" denotes the blood-feud that runs deepest in the heart of man (cf. Numbers 35:19-20; Ezekiel 25:15-17; 35:5-6) THOU SHALT BRUISE (shűp). A PROPHECY OF CONTINUING STRUGGLE BETWEEN THE DESCENDANTS OF WOMAN AND OF THE SERPENT TO DESTROY EACH OTHER. The verb shűp is rare (cf. Job 9:17; Psalm 139:11). It is the same in both clauses. [ Compare Revelation 12:17 -- James ] "When translated ‘crush' it seems appropriate to the reference concerning the had of the serpent, but not quite so accurate in also rendered lie in wait for, aim at or (LXX) watch for. The Vulgate renders it "conteret," "bruise" in the first instance and in this famous passage, CALLED THE PROTEVAGEFIUM, ‘FIRST GOSPEL,' the announcement of a prolonged struggle, perpetual antagonism, wounds on both sides, and eventual victory for the seed of the woman(Genesis 3:15 & Revelation 12:17). "God's promise that the head of the serpent was to be crushed pointed forward to the coming of Messiah and guaranteed victory. Thus assurance fell upon the ears of God's earliest creatures as a blessed hope of redemption." The Zondervan Pictorial Encyclopedia of the Bible, Volume 3, page 782: "KENITES: Meaning (metalworkers, smiths). Clan or tribal name of semi-nomadic peoples of South Palestine and Sinai. The Aramaic and Arabic etymologis of the root ‘gyn' show that it has to do with metal and metal word (thus the Hebrew word from this root, ‘lance'). This probably indicates that the Kenites were metal workers, especially since Sinai and wadi ‘arabah were rich in high grade cooper ore. W.F. Albright has pointed to the Beni Hassan mural in Egypt (19th century B.C.), "As an illustration of such a WONDERING GROUP OF SMITHS. This mural depicts thirty-six men, women and children in characteristic Semitic dress leading along with other animals, donkeys laden with MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS, weapons and an item which Albright has identified as a BELLOWS. He has further noted that Lemech's three children (Genesis 4:19-22) were responsible for HERDS (Jubal), MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS (Jubal), and METAL WORK (Tubal-Cain, or Tubal, THE SMITH), the three occupations which seem most evident in the mural...2nd quote from the same article: THE EARLY MONARCHY. During this period a significant concentration of Kenites was located in the southern Judean territory. This is clear from 1 Samuel 15:6 cited above and also from David's relations with them." Postexilic references. In 1 Chronicles 2:55 the FAMILIES OF THE SCRIBES living at Jabaz are said to be Kenites. Apparently, during the kingdom and exile periods, certain Kenites had given up NOMADIC SMITHING and had taken on a more sedentary, but equally honorable PROFESSION (?) OF SCRIBE. Peake's Commentary on the Bible, page 114: "The etymology of the name suggest THAT THEY WERE SMITHS OR ARTIFICERS, a theory which is supported by their association with the Wadi ‘Arabah, where there were copper deposits which had been worked by the Egyptians since the middle of the 3rd millennium. The Jamieson, Fausset & Brown Commentary On The Whole bible has this to say on Kenite, page 293: "THE FAMILIES OF THE SCRIBES; either civil or ecclesiastical officers of the Kenite origin, WHO ARE HERE CLASSIFIED WITH THE TRIBE OF JUDAH, NOT AS BEING DESCENDED FROM IT, but as dwellers within its territory, and in a measure INCORPORATED with its people." The Matthew Pool's Commentary On The Holy Bible has this to say on the Kenites, Volume 1, page 778: "THE SCRIBES; either civil, WHO WERE PUBLIC NOTARIES, WHO WROTE AND SIGNED LEGAL INSTRUMENTS; OR ECCLESIASTICAL...and are here mentioned not as if they were of the tribe of Judah, but because thy dwelt among them, and probably were allied to them by marriages, and so in a manner incorporated with them. Which dwelt, or rather, dwelt; Hebrew, were dwellers. For the other translation, which dwelt, MAY SEEM TO INSINUATE THAT THESE WERE DESCENDANTS OF JUDAH, WHICH THEY WERE NOT; but his translation ONLY SIGNIFIES COHABITATION WITH THEM, for which cause they are here named with them." All these things the Jews do today, here in America. And because Christians have listened to the lying, deceiving, traitorous, Priests of Baal, the Judeo-Christian Clergy they have almost destroyed our nation and are fast destroying our people. Who Were/Are The Kenites? It is obvious from all this that the scribes in the House of Israel, in the days of the Kings, were Kenites, and that the title of scribes was kept in the family so-to-speak, just as it is in some parts of the world today. So it is obvious that the Israelites allowed them to stay in the land with them because they were the Kenite Scribes that were living in Canaan when Israel first come into the land, after their 40 year trek through the wilderness in their escape from Egypt. For it is the land of Canaan that Yahweh told Abraham: "In the same day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates: THE KENITES, and the Kenizzites, and the Kadmonites, And the Hittites, and the Perizzites, and the Rephaims, And the Amorites, and the Canaanites, and the Girga****es, and the Jebusites." (Genesis 15:18-21) These verses are witnesses that Yahweh gave the land to Abram (before He changed his name to Abraham) and some 400-500 years before the Children of Israel returned to the Promised Land under the leadership of first Moses and then Joshua. Kenites: Strong's Concordance #7017 Qeyniy (kay-nee'); or Qiyniy (1 Chronicles 2:55) (kee-nee'); patronymic from OT:7014; a Kenite or member of the tribe of Kajin: KJV - Kenite. Kenites: Strong's Concordance #7014 Qayin (kah'-yin); the same as OT:7013 (with a play upon the affinity to OT:7069); Kajin, the name of the first child, also of a place in Palestine, and of an Oriental tribe: KJV - CAIN, Kenite (-s). (Biblesoft's New Exhaustive Strong's Numbers and Concordance with Expanded Greek-Hebrew Dictionary. Copyright (c) 1994, Biblesoft and International Bible Translators, Inc.) [ We have ALREADY SEEN, in the first part of this treatise, that the Hebrews were WHITE, NOT Oriental ! -- James ] Which shows that Kenites are identified with the descendants of Cain or Kajin. Therefore, Kenites are the descendants of Cain. And since Cain intermarried (mixed race) with pre-Adamic peoples and thus the Kenites were only partially of Adamic stock; THEY WERE DEFINITELY NOT FROM THE TRIBE OF SHEM, THEREFORE THEY ARE NOT SEMITES. "The Kenites were a nomadic people whose original home was in the region just south of Palestine, and they were loosely associated with the Amalekites. Balaam, in his prophecy recorded in Numbers 24:20-23, spoke of the Kenites in connection with the Amalekites. "And he took up his parable, and said, Balaam the son of Beor hath said, and the man whose eyes are open hath said: He hath said, which heard the words of God, and knew the knowledge of the most High, which saw the vision of the Almighty, falling into a trance, but having his eyes open: I shall see him, but not now: I shall behold him, but not nigh: there shall come a Star out of Jacob, and a Sceptre shall rise out of Israel, [ NOT out of a bunch of so-called "jews". -- James ] and shall smite the corners of Moab, and destroy all the children of Sheth. And Edom shall be a possession, Seir also shall be a possession for his enemies; and Israel shall do valiantly. Out of Jacob shall come he that shall have dominion, and shall destroy him that remaineth of the city. And when he looked on Amalek, he took up his parable, and said, Amalek was the first of the nations; but his latter end shall be that he perish for ever. And HE LOOKED ON THE KENITES, AND TOOK UP HIS PARABLE, AND SAID, STRONG IS THY DWELLINGPLACE, AND THOU PUTTEST THY NEST IN A ROCK. NEVERTHELESS THE KENITE SHALL BE WASTED, until Asshur shall carry thee away captive. And he took up his parable, and said, Alas, who shall live when God doeth this! And ships shall come from the coast of Chittim, and shall afflict Asshur, and shall afflict Eber, and he also shall perish for ever. And Balaam rose up, and went and returned to his place: and Balak also went his way." (Numbers 24:15-25) Jeremiah the Prophet wrote that Yahweh did NOT speak to, NOR did He give any command to Israel concerning burnt-offerings or sacrifices in the day that He brought them out of Egypt. "For I SPAKE NOT UNTO YOUR FATHERS, NOR COMMANDED THEM IN THE DAY THAT I BROUGHT THEM OUT OF THE LAND OF EGYPT, CONCERNING BURNT OFFERINGS OR SACRIFICES: But this thing commanded I them, saying, Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and ye shall be my people: and walk ye in all the ways that I have commanded you, that it may be well unto you. But they hearkened not, nor inclined their ear, but walked in the counsels and in the imagination of their evil heart, and went backward, and not forward." (Jeremiah 7:22-24) Here we can see that Jeremiah has declared that the Kenite scribes had falsified the Law by writing lies into it. This was because the Kenites were worshipers of Baal, and the fact that animal sacrifice was a very important part of the worship of Baal, Jeremiah's proclamation and denunciation would seem to be substantiated. Therefore, it is clear that it was the Baal worshiping Kenite Scribes who tampered with the Word of Yahweh. For He would not have commanded His Israel People, to practice the same rites of animal sacrifice that were so important to the Canaanitish worshipers of Baal? Yahweh commanded Israel not to follow the heathen. Neither is there any mention of Cain and Abel in the Chronology of Adam listed in 1st Chronicles: "Adam, Sheth, Enosh, Kenan, Mahalaleel, Jered, Henoch, Methuselah, Lamech, Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth." (1 Chronicles 1:1-4) By this we know that none of the offspring of Cain were the seed of Adam, and were the seed of the Devil, just as Christ told us in John 8:44. The very first people, that of the descendants of Adam, Seth, Abraham, Isaac (Whom we, the White Race is named after as instructed by Jacob/Israel in the 48th chapter of Genesis). "The Angel which redeemed me from all evil, bless the lads; and let my name be named on them, and the name of my fathers Abraham and Isaac; and let them grow into a multitude in the midst of the earth." (Genesis 48:16) This has been fulfilled, in that . And they have, have also, been called after Jathe Anglo-Saxon, Germanic, Scandinavian, Celtic and kindred people of the earth have been called "Anglo-Saxons" after the name of Isaac Jacob/Israel because they have been called Israelites. These same people have always occupied the center of the earth, for they can be found to have created nations and civilizations just north and south of the equator. However, we must mention here that Esau was the brother to Jacob; so he was NEVER an Israelite; but his seed would have been of mixed blood, because of his marriage to the Hittite women: "And Esau was forty years old when he took to wife Judith the daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and Bashemath the daughter of Elon the Hittite." (Genesis 26:34) Then we are told in Genesis 28:8-9: "And Esau seeing that the daughters of Canaan pleased not Isaac his father; Then went Esau unto Ishmael, and took unto the wives which he had Mahalath the daughter of Ishmael Abraham's son, the sister of Nebajoth, to be his wife." Thus we can see clearly that neither Esau nor any of his descendants were Israelites. But all of his children from that time on could be classified as Jews. Also, his descendants could be called brothers to the Arabs, because he married one of Ishmael's daughters. The first time that a mixed multitude is mentioned in the Bible is in Exodus 12:37-38: "And the children of Israel journeyed from Rameses to Succoth, about six hundred thousand on foot that were men, beside children. And a mixed multitude went up also with them; and flocks, and herds, even very much cattle." Then the mixed multitude is mentioned again in Nehemiah: "Now it came to pass, when they had heard the law, that they separated from Israel all the mixed multitude." (Nehemiah 13:3) There was another group of mixed breeds which came back from the Babylonian captivity with SOME of the True Israelites which returned to build the Temple. During this time the priests found that many of the Israelites had married into the other races, and had strange wives (meaning they were not Israelites) and were told to separate themselves from them: "Now it came to pass, when they had heard the law, that they separated from Israel all the mixed multitude." (Nehemiah 13:3) PLEASE NOTE THAT NEITHER CAIN NOR ABLE IS MENTIONED IN ADAM'S LINE. Therefore, we can conclude from this that neither Cain nor Able were Adam's children. For if they had God certainly would have instructed that they be noted as such. Neither is there any mention of Cain and Abel in the Chronology of Adam listed in 1st Chronicles: "Adam, Sheth, Enosh, Kenan, Mahalaleel, Jered, Henoch, Methuselah, Lamech, Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth." (1 Chronicles 1:1-4) BY THIS WE KNOW THAT NONE OF THE OFFSPRING OF CAIN WERE THE SEED OF ADAM, AND WERE THE SEED OF THE DEVIL, JUST AS CHRIST TOLD US IN JOHN 8:44. The Jewish Encyclopedia, states: "EDOM IS IN MODERN JEWRY." (Jewish Encyclopedia, 1925 edition, Vol. 5, p. 41) Which is a true statement, based on the above information that we have seen in the Scriptures. The Jews know this and they know they are not Israelites because they have admitted it, both here and under the heading of "A brief History of the Terms for Jew" in the 1980 Jewish Almanac is the following: "Strictly speaking it is incorrect to call an Ancient Israelite a ‘Jew' or to call a contemporary Jew an Israelite or a Hebrew." (A brief History of the Terms for Jew, in the 1980 Jewish Almanac) There was another group of mixed breeds which came back from the Babylonian captivity with SOME of the True Israelites which returned to build the Temple. During this time the priests found that many of the Israelites had married into the other races, and had strange wives (meaning they were not Israelites) and were told to separate themselves from them: "Now it came to pass, when they had heard the law, that they separated from Israel all the mixed multitude." (Nehemiah 13:3) This is a subject that has very effectively been obscured by society and churches in particular. Thank God, there is a remnant that understands the Bible truth concerning the seed of the serpent. Some of you may be cognizant of the edifying details of this documentation, however we know that very few people have ever been exposed to the detailed information herein, which supports the literal and physical existence of the Luciferian seed of the serpent in our midst. Unfortunately the heretic doctrine of virtually all churches today, expound the lie that the seed of the serpent, Satan the devil, is manifest in some obscure virus in the ethereal space, that may infect or contaminate man, causing man to be evil. (However, these Judeo-Christian churches claim they have the prescription to destroy this virus). Therefore, it is our endeavor to present the Biblical evidence, that we are all rubbing shoulders with the literal and physical seed of the serpent here on earth daily. We shall document the evidence in this matter from the undeniable researched Word of God, the Bible. Many relevant scriptures we will note for you to read, because we do not have space to quote all the pertinent documentation. So if the seed of the serpent is literally and physically in our midst, then we would want to recognize them, wouldn't you? Let us begin with Jude 11-13: "Woe unto them! for they have gone in the way of Cain, and ran greedily after the error of Balaam for reward, and perished in the gainsaying of Core. These are spots in your feasts of charity, when they feast with you, feeding themselves without fear: clouds they are without water, carried about of winds; trees whose fruit withereth, without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots; Raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame; wandering stars, to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness for ever." Who are these "people" spoken of in these scriptures? An ilk that are spiritually and materially dead, non-productive, loud and noisy, wandering over the earth to work their diabolical deeds of rape, murder, theft and corruption, which has reserved for them the pits of hell. We read further of these in Matthew 23:33: "Ye serpent, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell?" Serpent: Strong's Concordance: #3789 ophis (of'-is); probably from 3700 (through the idea of sharpness of vision); a snake, figuratively (as a type of sly cunning) AN ARTFUL MALICIOUS PERSON, especially Satan: KJV– serpent. Generation: Strong's Concordance: #1081 gennema-what has been born or begotten a) THE OFFSPRING OR PROGENY OF MEN or animals b) the fruits of the earth, the produce of agriculture These are the words of Yahshua (Jesus), and it certainly behooves us to consider who He is speaking of herein. With all of the evidence in the Bible, why is the seed of the serpent in our midst a total mystery to the great majority of the people on earth? Why does Yahshua identify the seed of the serpent as Mystery Babylon in Revelation chapter 17? The answer is very simple: Because the people have rejected knowledge, and do not and have no desire to recognized the enemies of Yahshua. "My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou has forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children." We have the first evidence in the Bible, of the seed of the serpent in Genesis 3:15: [ Also read Revelation 12:17. -- James ] "And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, (Lucifer and Eve) and between thy seed and her seed; (progeny, offspring) It shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel." Here we see that Yahweh declared war between His children (seed), and the children (seed) of the serpent Lucifer. This war has been raging in the world since Genesis 3:15, to this very moment, and will not ease until the victorious second coming of Yahshua. Certainly we have the Word of God, as evidence, that the seed of the serpent exists here on earth. Therefore it is incumbent upon all Christians, to understand the who, what and where our enemies are. How can a Christian wage the Divinely ordained war for Yahshua, if we do not recognize the enemy? The seed of the serpent has long ago infiltrated every facet of society in order to pervert the Divine plan of God. It is the duty of all true, sincere Christians to guard the keys to the Kingdom. But the truth of the matter is; we have turned the keys to the Kingdom over to the seed of the serpent, the Jews, and that is why we today have the doctrine of Balaam in our churches. First let us consider the words of Jude 11-13, a people that are "twice dead." We read in Job 26:5: "Dead things are formed from under the waters, and the inhabitants thereof." We see that Job speaks of the spiritually and materially dead inhabitants formed under the waters. The prophet tells us in Isaiah 14:9: "Hell from beneath is moved for thee at thy coming: it stirreth up the dead for thee, even the chief ones of the earth: it hath raised up from their thrones all the kings of the nations." Indeed this tells us where most of the rulers of all nations are along with their proselytes, and we also know that the Jews have been in control of most governments ever since ancient Babylon. Please pay particular attention to the following scriptures, pertaining to the dead: "Wilt thou show wonders to the dead? Shall the dead arise and praise thee? Shelah." (Psalm 88:10); "For her house inclineth unto death, and her paths unto the dead." (Proverbs 2:18); "But he knoweth not that the dead are there; and that her guests are in the depths of hell." (Proverbs 9:18); "The getting of treasures by a lying tongue is a vanity tossed to and fro of them that seek death." (Proverbs 21:6); "With my soul have I desired thee in the night; yea, with my spirit within me will I seek thee early: for when thy judgments are in the earth the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness." (Isaiah 26:9) Yahshua when speaking to the Jews in John 8:47: "He that is of God heareth God's words: ye therefore hear them not, because ye are not of God." There are a multitude of scriptures that identify the Jews as being (spiritually and materially) dead from the womb, from birth. They are not children of Yahweh, they are a cabal of Luciferian children that are literal vampires and parasites, deriving their physical existence from the blood and material assets of the children of Yahweh. All deceit, crime, corruption, perversion, and anti-Christ activity in the world, can be traced to it's origin, the Jew and his proselytes. Are Today's Jews True Israelites? "Things are seldom as they seem ... Skim milk masquerades as cream." (Gilbert and Sullivan, Pinafore) These passages were not compiled to reveal Israel's identity. However, since it has been proven that God continues to have a specific purpose and plan for His people Israel, then it becomes imperative to identify who the Israelites are and who they are not. This brings us to the second of the two questions posed in chapter 1: Who Are The Israelites Today? Even asking the question presupposes that there are reservations about the identity of the modern-day Jew and his relationship to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob/Israel. For the majority of Christians the answer is a foregone conclusion. Ask this question of the average person claiming to be a Christian, and he will quickly tell you: "The true descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob are those people today who call themselves Jews." Yet in light of that answer, we should know that the Bible makes it very clear that there are imposters masquerading as Israelites although no Israelite blood flows through their veins. The book of Revelation informs us of this deception and the identity of these blasphemers: I [Yahshua] know your tribulation and your poverty (but you are rich) and the blasphemy by those [imposters] who say they are Jews [Judahites] and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan. (Revelation 2:9) In other words, there are those who claim to be of the house of Judah or Judahites, and therefore Israelites, but who in reality are imposters identified by Yahshua as a synagogue of Satan. We find a double witness to this statement in Revelation 3:9 "... I [Yahshua], will cause those of the synagogue of Satan, who say that they are Jews [Judahites], and are not, but lie - behold, I will make them to come and bow down at your feet, and to know that I have loved you. (Revelation 3:9) Modern-day Jews themselves verify the truth of these passages in what they say and write, although in many cases their admissions are not meant for non-Jewish eyes or ears. Posted - 19 Sep 2003 : 06:59:59 | ISRAEL: The Rise of ESAU's Army Edom, Esau, and Idumea Of great importance to past/current/future events is the answer to this question: Who & what is the United Nations created border-State now called ISRAEL, and what do the Hebrew manuscripts tell us about these people? First, let's take an historical look at the recent past: "In her book My Life, former Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir recalls the 7th meeting of the Canadian Jewish Congress in the spring of 1947, when the future Zionist Israeli leader, Dr. Nahum Goldmann, boldly explained, 'We insisted on Palestine not because of religious, historical or sentimental reasons, but because Palestine is a turning table of three continents and in the military, political, and strategic sense it is the world's Center. Besides, the oil reserves in this area are much higher than on the whole American continent'." These people don't care at all about the "Promised Land" (Caanan) God said He gave to the lineage of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Records of their various British & Canadian Congress meetings during WWII shows that they also had debated settlements in Australia, Africa, Madagascar, Poland and South America. Have we forgotten that those who settled the present-day Israel were often illegal refugees forced onto ships against their will? These are "strangers" in the border-State of Israel today as they were "strangers" in the lands of Germany, Poland, Russia, Austria, Hungary or America just 50 or so years ago. According to their own Torahs and Scriptures, they are wanderers with no inheritance in any land. But, the 'God of Israel' knows who are really His. The two World Wars were permitted to establish Israel in the land of ancient Canaan so He could fulfill prophecy given to them -- NOT create a Mafia-state for 'strangers' to hijack the world. According to their own ancient Hebrew manuscripts, a tiny remnant of the predestined true seed of Abraham, Isaac and Israel are to be restored in the 'Covenant Land' of Caanan. There, it says the 'God of their forefathers' is to meet them in the ministry of the two prophets (as prophecied in Zechariah 4). Beware of wolves in sheep's clothing. Beware of 'strangers.' Test all things by the PRESENT Truth of the Logos-Word. All Israel is NOT Israel, and all Christendom is NOT Christian. The blinded people on this earth are wondering why everything is so out of order right now; why politics are upside down and inside out; why the once "Christian West" who owns and controls the world's resources (and who developed its industries and invented its technologies) is completely bankrupt; and after a purported "victory" in two World Wars, why "we" who live in the western nations have become the tail and not the head. Who is the head? Confusion concerning the nature of world and local events exists simply because people don't truly believe the prophecies. The complete article can be found at http://tylersword.org/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=317 Posted - 24 Sep 2003 : 23:29:42 | Excellent reply Bondservant. The other quote regarding what the ZIONISTS are REALLY after in the PROMISE LAND, is the mineral values in the dead sea, which amounts to - I believe - SEVERAL TRILLION $$$$$. I have the quote in my archives, but can't turn it up right now. Posted - 24 Sep 2003 : 23:35:58 | I have some notes on Jews = Philistines (= Avites = Cainites?): Though there is no further mention by this name, the Casluhim are declared to be the origin of the Philistines: Genesis 10:14* And Pathrusim, and Casluhim <03695>, (out of whom came Philistim,) and Caphtorim. 1 Chronicles 1:12* And Pathrusim, and Casluhim <03695>, (of whom came the Philistines,) and Caphthorim. The Casluhim themselves are not declared to have become the Philistines, rather the Philistines came out of them, perhaps of a people which made a political affiliation or commercial alliance with them. Next it will be seen that the Avites became the Philistines. Perhaps these are those who associated with the Casluhim, but that's speculation until better information is found. There is no explicit explanation in the Bible of where the Avites came from. Their first mention is in Deuteronomy 2: 19* And when thou comest nigh over against the children of Ammon, distress them not, nor meddle with them: for I will not give thee of the land of the children of Ammon any possession; because I have given it unto the children of Lot for a possession. 20* (That also was accounted a land of giants: giants dwelt therein in old time; and the Ammonites call them Zamzummims; 21* A people great, and many, and tall, as the Anakims; but the LORD destroyed them before them; and they succeeded them, and dwelt in their stead: 22* As he did to the children of Esau, which dwelt in Seir, when he destroyed the Horims from before them; and they succeeded them, and dwelt in their stead even unto this day: 23* And the Avims which dwelt in Hazerim, even unto Azzah, the Caphtorims, which came forth out of Caphtor, destroyed them, and dwelt in their stead.) Reading Deuteronomy 2:19-23 carefully, the Avims are seen to have destroyed the Caphtorims and dwelt in their stead. The Avims, also called Avites, are again mentioned at Joshua 13:3, confirming they prevailed against the Caphtorims: Joshua 13:3* From Sihor, which is before Egypt, even unto the borders of Ekron northward, which is counted to the Canaanite: five lords of the Philistines; the Gazathites, and the Ashdothites, the Eshkalonites, the Gittites, and the Ekronites; also the Avites: These Avites made the false gods Nibhaz and Tartak: 2 Kings 17:31* And the Avites made Nibhaz <05026> and Tartak <08662>, and the Sepharvites burnt their children in fire to Adrammelech and Anammelech, the gods of Sepharvaim. According to the Strong's definitions, Avites means "perverters", and their god Nibhaz had the form of a dog, and Tartak means "prince of darkness." The Philistines are declared to come from Caphtor: Jeremiah 47:4* Because of the day that cometh to spoil all the Philistines, and to cut off from Tyrus and Zidon every helper that remaineth: for the LORD will spoil the Philistines, the remnant of the country of Caphtor. Amos 9:7* Are ye not as children of the Ethiopians unto me, O children of Israel? saith the LORD. Have not I brought up Israel out of the land of Egypt? and the Philistines from Caphtor, and the Syrians from Kir? Caphtor is named as the place in which the Caphtorims dwelled, whom the Avites destoyed and supplanted (Deut. 2:23), who are then named "Philistines" (Jer. 47:4, Amos 9:7). It is then evident that it is the Avites who God speaks against when He declares: Ezekiel 25:16* Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I will stretch out mine hand upon the Philistines, and I will cut off the Cherethims, and destroy the remnant of the sea coast. Zephania 2:5* Woe unto the inhabitants of the sea coast, the nation of the Cherethites <03774>! the word of the LORD is against you; O Canaan, the land of the Philistines, I will even destroy thee, that there shall be no inhabitant. Caphtor is identified as Crete; see <03731>. It is interesting to note that in the New Testament, Paul declares the Cretians as evil liars: 10 For there are many unruly and vain talkers and deceivers, specially they of the circumcision: 11 Whose mouths must be stopped, who subvert whole houses, teaching things which they ought not, for filthy lucre's sake. 12 One of themselves, even a prophet of their own, said, The Cretians are alway liars, evil beasts, slow bellies. 13 This witness is true. Wherefore rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith; 14 Not giving heed to Jewish fables, and commandments of men, that turn from the truth. 15 Unto the pure all things are pure: but unto them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure; but even their mind and conscience is defiled. 16 They profess that they know God; but in works they deny him, being abominable, and disobedient, and unto every good work reprobate. So it is seen that the Avites, the "perverters," have become known as the Philistines, or foreigners, who are based on or originated from the island of Crete. Next of interest is to compare verses in 2 Kings 14 with the parallel verses in 2 Chronicles 26 to see that king Azariah, also called Uzziah, built the city of Elath, also called Eloth, among the Philsitines. 2 Kings 14: 21* And all the people of Judah took Azariah, which was sixteen years old, and made him king instead of his father Amaziah. 22* He built Elath, and restored it to Judah, after that the king slept with his fathers. 2 Chronicles 26: 1* ¶ Then all the people of Judah took Uzziah, who was sixteen years old, and made him king in the room of his father Amaziah. 2 He built Eloth, and restored it to Judah, after that the king slept with his fathers. * * * 6* And he went forth and warred against the Philistines, and brake down the wall of Gath, and the wall of Jabneh, and the wall of Ashdod, and built cities about Ashdod, and among the Philistines. Easton's Topical notes lists this for "Elath," topic 1143: "Grove; trees, #De 2:8| also in plural form Eloth #1Ki 9:26| etc.; called by the Greeks and Romans Elana; a city of Idumea, on the east, i.e., the Elanitic, gulf, or the Gulf of Akabah, of the Red Sea. It is first mentioned in #De 2:8| It is also mentioned along with Ezion-geber in #1Ki 9:26| It was within the limits of Solomon's dominion, but afterwards revolted. It was, however, recovered and held for a time under king Uzziah #2Ki 14:22| Now the ruin Aila." 1 Kings 9:26* And king Solomon made a navy of ships in Eziongeber, which is beside Eloth, on the shore of the Red sea, in the land of Edom. Elath/Eloth was a city among the Philistines. It seems clear that while the kingdom of Judah ruled over that city, it was inhabited by Philistines. Then we read that king Rezin of Syria recovered Elath to Syria whereupon he "drave the Jews" from the city. 2 Kings 16:6* At that time Rezin king of Syria recovered Elath to Syria, and drave the Jews from Elath: and the Syrians came to Elath, and dwelt there unto this day. This verse is the (very important) first occurance of the Hebrew word "yehuwdiy," <03064> a word patronimically derived from that for "Judah" <03063>, translated as "Jews." Some claim this word is merely another name for Judah, but it really means "Judeans," as political affiliates, as opposed to blood-line Judahites. Some people say 2 Kings 16:6 refers to the Syrians running the people of Judah out of Elath. But Elath/Eloth was a Philistine city, though ruled by Judah. King Rezin just took control of Elath from Judah and kicked out its tenants, the Philistines. Setting this verse in context shows of whom this first usage of the word "Jews" really speaks: Avites, perverters, foreigners to the land, attempting to hide as political affiliates: Judeans. Since Israel rejected the rule of God and desired a king (1 Samuel 8:4-22), rejecting family cohesion and prefering political affiliations, it is no surprise to find the hated Philistines working their way into the heart of Judah, blurring the lines of separation a step at a time. Posted - 24 Sep 2003 : 23:59:23 | Here's the Quote: "The Jews might have had Uganda, Madagascar, and other places for the establishment of a Jewish Fatherland, but they wanted absolutely nothing except Palestine, not because the Dead Sea water by evaporation can produce five trillion dollars of metaloids and powdered metals; not because the sub-soil of Palestine contains twenty times more petroleum than all the combined reserves of the two Americas; but because Palestine is the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa, because Palestine constitutes the veritable center of world political power, the strategic center for world control." (Nahum Goldman, President World Jewish Congress). YOU CAN BELIEVE that the 5 trillion in minerals was part of the consideration ........... Posted - 31 Oct 2003 : 00:32:52 | "Look! I will force those who belong to Satan, those liars who say they are Jews but are not, to come and bown down at your feet. They will acknowledge that you are the ones I love.” Revelation 3:9 The following is an article that traces the origins of those who call themselves "Jews". GOG, MAGOG AND THE KINGDOM OF THE KHAZARS "Son of man, set thy face against Gog, the land of Magog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal, and prophesy against him." Ezekiel 38:2 "A THOUSAND YEARS before the establishment of the Modern State of Israel, there existed a Jewish kingdom in the eastern fringes of Europe, astride the Don and Volga rivers..." So begins a thesis by Jewish author Kevin Alan Brook. The kingdom of which he speaks appears at first consideration to be comprised of nearly as much disinformation, misinformation, "myth"information, and, curiously, NO-information as there is actual provable historical fact. Yet upon closer scrutiny this kingdom, known as Khazaria, or the Kingdom of the Khazars, is clearly revealed in a vast body of historical evidence, much of which has come to light only in the last three to five decades. This mysterious kingdom, which has sculpted our modern world to an astounding (and alarming) degree, once occupied an immense land area of over a million square miles extending from western Hungary/Austria eastward to the Aural Sea, north to the Upper Volga, and its southern region extending to the Caucasus Mountains between the Black and Caspian seas. It was at that time literally the largest country on earth. It has only been in the last several decades, however, that greater documented evidence from ancient manuscripts has come to light and revealed the astonishing historical truth of this ancient kingdom and its connection to the origins of modern-day Israel. For full article click link http://www.travesser.com/winds/khazars.html Edited by - Adam on 31 Oct 2003 22:00:39 Posted - 31 Oct 2003 : 13:18:14 | Referring to a quote from above: "According to many different ancient manuscripts, not just Hebrew writings, the Edomites are the descendants of Esau who married 'serpent seed women.' He basically committed genocide on the seed of Adam, Abraham and Isaac." Is there any ties to the painting below, were Michael Angelo was commissioned to paint the serpent as half serpent and half woman: Posted - 16 Nov 2003 : 00:58:40 | Excellent Manuel; Abraham,Isaac & Jacob. " In Isaac - Saac's Sons(Saxons)- shall my SEED be called ......." Here's a couple of verses that put a few more pieces in the puzzle......... Revelation 12:17 And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ. The same seed as here: Genesis 3:13: And the LORD God said unto the woman, What is this that thou hast done? And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat. 14: And the LORD God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life: 15: And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel. Gen 17:19 And God said, Sarah thy wife shall bear thee a son indeed; and thou shalt call his name Isaac: and I will establish my covenant with him for an everlasting covenant, and with his seed after him. Gen 21:12 And God said unto Abraham, Let it not be grievous in thy sight because of the lad, and because of thy bondwoman; in all that Sarah hath said unto thee, hearken unto her voice; for in Isaac shall thy seed be called. The SERPENT LEVIATHAN is in America. Persecution of Christians is BEGINNING, Put on the WHOLE armor of God. We now won't have to get our news about the Christians being slain in the foreign countries by the Muslims and others. We will SOON BE THE NEWS ! At the moment, Christians are being told to shut up about their religion; soon the minions of the Beast who control the 10 mile square called Washington D.C., will be bringing out the guillotines, as prescribed by TalMUD-ic "law" via Public Law 102-14. Those of us who insist on proclaiming Jesus as Deity will be decapitated. Don't fail to check out this link: "The following while true , believe it or not was written by an atheist." " Vying for the authorship of the One World Religion are a number of factions, including certain interest groups that wish the theocracy to be based primarily on Judaic ideology, emulating the firm and merciless hand of Islam's mullahs and omams. Under such a dictatorship, books would be banned and burned, and freethinkers would be jailed or executed. If the Hassidic Jewish Movement has its way, the so-called Noahide Laws would be followed to the letter, as would many others found in the "Old Testament," prescribing capital punishment for abortion, euthanasia and "sexual deviation" such as adultery and homosexuality. The punishment, in fact, for breaking any of the Noahide Laws is decapitation." [ Calling Jesus Deity, is blasphemy to a TalMUD-ic "jew". The punishment will be decapitation. " .......the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ." Along with the dissolution of Christianity by way of its being merged with Talmudism, equally ominous is the fact that Constitutional law is quickly being chewed up and spit out as Talmudic law. The 'Law' of the Pharisees. On January 12, 2000, Stephen Ames, Jr., a guest on the Sweet Liberty broadcast, read to us from a book written by Menachem Elon, Deputy President, Supreme Court of Israel. (Remember the author's name - Menachem Elon. It appears in a news article following, although the newspaper spelled his first name without the 'c' -- 'Menahem'.) Published by The Jewish Publication Society, Philadelphia Jerusalem 5754 / 1994, Elon's book is titled: JEWISH LAW; HISTORY, SOURCES, PRINCIPLES; Ha-Mishpat Ha-Ivri; Volume 1. On pages 1144-1145 the author is discussing the codification of law in Europe and the U.S. in comparison with codification of Jewish Law. Elon says of Maimonides: "This quality of Jewish law is axiomatic and beyond dispute. Not even Maimonides, who compiled the greatest and most nearly perfect halakhic code of all, sought to establish his work as the source of halakhic authority... Nor did Maimonides entertain even the slightest idea of introducing any change in the law through his work. He then concluded: [referring to Maimonides introduction to his code book] "Everything in the Babylonian Talmud is binding on all Israel. Every town and country must follow all the customs, give effect to the decrees, and carry out the enactments of the Talmudic Sages because the entire Jewish people accepted everything contained in the Talmud ..." 'Every town and country must . . . give effect to the decrees, and carry out the enactments of the Talmudic Sages. . . ' My casual and somewhat sarcastic remark was, "who cares what a former Israeli Supreme Court Justice says. That doesn't affect us." Next day -- as if in direct response to that conversation -- the Newark, New Jersey Star Ledger, 1-13-00, carried two articles on Talmudic law in the U.S. (emphasis added) The first headline boasted: The Talmud confronts Florida's electric chair By Amy Ellis Nutt; Star-Ledger Staff: Evidence of the increased interest in Jewish legal studies at American law schools can be found in the fact that more than three dozen schools now teach the subject; that the American Association of Law School Professors has its own Jewish law section; and that there is now a Jewish law casebook being used as a reference tool in courses on the subject. But the most profound evidence may well be found right now at the highest level of American Justice. Last month, a brief was filed before the U.S. Supreme Court regarding Florida's use of the electric chair and whether it constitutes cruel and unusual punishment, prohibited by the Eighth Amendment to the Constitution. What makes this brief unique is that it does not rely on a single tenet of American law, but rather solely on the Talmud. According to the two lawyers who filed the brief, Nathan Lewin and former Israel Supreme Court Justice Menahem Elon, the Talmud can provide an important way for evaluating the fair implementation of the death penalty. "What we're saying is that under Jewish law three principles apply", Lewin told the Jerusalem Post. "That you should (execute) as painlessly as possible, as quickly as possible, and with the least mutilation of the body as possible. Those all derive from the principles that were in the Talmud 2,000 years ago". They are consistent, as well, with the Eighth Amendment. . . "I would consider it a substantial contribution", Lewin said, "if in either a majority or concurring or some opinion, the court says, 'Look, our conclusion that this is cruel and unusual punishment is buttressed, is informed, is supported by the fact that 2,000 years ago the rabbis in the Talmud said it would be impermissible to actually burn somebody at the stake, because that would be a death that would disfigure and would cause pain over an extended period of time'. "That would engender respect in the world at large for a body of law that we study all the time and believe is divinely inspired and worth our time and attention." Think about what you've just read! The U.S. Supreme Court accepted a brief based solely on Talmudic Law and which did 'not rely on a single tenet of American law'. Do bear in mind that the U.S. Supreme Court was established to decide cases where the constitutionality of laws come into dispute. The U.S. Supreme Court was created by the states as a branch of the federal government under the U.S. Constitution. The U.S. Supreme Court is not the supreme law of this land, nor are decisions made by Supreme Court justices when those decisions effectively amend the Constitution! It would be worthwhile to read again (from Doug Reed's book) Dr. Kastein's explanation of how the scribes translated / wrote the Talmud, along with their peculiar interpretations and interpolations: ". . . with a definite object in view, that of making it comprehensible to the Greeks; this led to the distortion and twisting of words, changes of meaning, and the frequent substitution of general terms and ideas for those that were purely local and national". In essence then, the Talmud is a compilation of the distortions, twisted words, changed meanings, and frequent substitution by the priesthood, of the true Law of Creator. The Talmud, as Jesus charged, is man's law -- an evil and perverted law, as opposed to the immutable, changeless Laws of Creation as Jesus taught . . . to simply do unto others as you would have others do unto you, and that -- in perfect justice -- we are allowed to reap what we sow. Ignorance of the law is no excuse, because the 'knowledge of good and evil' -- knowing right from wrong -- is a knowing within each and every one of us. Talmudic law allows and encourages homosexuality, pedophilia, sodomy, and bestiality. Talmudic law commands its adherents to charge usury to all gentiles, while forbidding lending with interest to Talmudists (Jews). In fact, in the Old Testament we find specifically the commandment of Jehovah in Deut. 15: 6 that: "... and thou shalt lend unto many nations, but thou shalt not borrow; and thou shalt reign over many nations, but they shall not reign over thee". Talmudic law commands the killing of all gentiles, especially Christians, since they are 'heretics' and 'blasphemers'. Jews who have fallen for the lies of the Talmud, and Christian Zionists who have fallen for the lies of their particular brand of 'Christianity' are truly people of the damned. It appears that the Talmud prevailed before the U.S. Supreme Court, since Old Sparky has been cast out of use. Mr. Lewin's assertion that the Talmud would not permit burning at the stake because "that would be a death that would disfigure and cause pain over an extended period of time", is a lie. It belies the words and commands of their god, Jehovah, as well as the Talmudic Law itself, as stated in Sanhedrin, 64a: "He who gives of his seed to Moloch incurs no punishment." Moloch was an Ammorite god of the Old Testament. He who 'gave his seed' to Moloch did so by throwing his newborn baby into a fire, burning the infant alive - a human sacrifice. The Talmudic sages decreed that the act of burning a live infant as a sacrifice to Moloch incurred no punishment. Another name for Moloch could be Jehovah, as we read in Exodus 13: 1,2: "And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Sanctify unto me all the firstborn, whatsoever openeth the womb among the children of Israel, both of man and of beast; it is mine." In Ezekiel 20: 25-26, because Jehovah was ticked off when his 'peculiar and special' people had not obeyed all his statutes and judgments, he said: "Wherefore I gave them also statutes that were not good, and judgments whereby they should not live; And I polluted them in their own gifts, in that they caused to pass through the fire all that openeth the womb, that I might make them desolate, to the end that they might know that I am the Lord." And Jesus said: "But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea." Matt: 18:6 The second article featured in the Star-Ledger on 1-13-2000 is a lengthy discourse on why Talmudic law is being taught in American law colleges. We will excerpt from this one. Above a photo of Rutgers-Camden Talmudic law professor, Steve Friedell, reading the Talmud in his office is the caption: "A professor finds his calling in teaching Jewish law at Rutgers". Using the phrase 'Jewish Law' throws the reader off track. There is no such thing as 'Jewish Law'! Jewish law is Talmudic Law. Another small photo gives a close-up shot of a book which caption states: "Below, Friedell holds a copy of the Talmud". What is not explained to the readers of the article is that Friedell is holding up only one volume of the 63-volume set. Instead, the Talmud is presented as 'a' book and described as: "... the 2,000 year old book of Jewish law... a towering collection of writings, 5,422 pages long, without vowels and punctuation." Another glaringly omitted fact is the existence of the oral law, non-written to ensure that no gentile could ever discover its content. The headline on this second article (emphasis added) reads: He answers to a higher authority "Friedell is a professor at Rutgers University Law School-Camden, and is one of just a handful of law school academia in the country specializing in the teaching of Jewish law. For hundreds of years in this country, law students and legal scholars have relied on American casebook law to illuminate the intricacies of our legal system. But with globalization taking place in every area of life -- from politics to economics to art and entertainment -- law schools are now recognizing the importance of studying non-Anglo-American legal systems and incorporating such courses as Jewish law into their curricula. . . . If a Talmudist is an expert in the Talmud, he is surely a humble one -- it is a book, says the slightly graying professor, that constantly challenges, constantly encourages debate, and leaves the student always looking for new insights. . . . In a 1992 article he wrote for the Indiana Law Journal, Friedell quoted a character from Herman Wouk's novel, Inside, Outside: "Under the opaque Aramaic surface of the Talmud is a magnificent structure of subtle legal brilliancies, all interwoven with legend, mysticism, the color of ancient times, and the cut-and-thrust of powerful minds in sharp clash. I can't get enough of it, and I've been at it for decades." Clearly Friedell feels likewise. . . . Rayman Solomon, the dean of Rutgers-Camden Law School is a big supporter of Friedell. "There has been a real renaissance in the study of Jewish law", says Solomon, "and a renewed interest in comparative law in general: Roman law, Greek law, Jewish law.." . . . Friedell, who says that more than half of his Jewish law classes are composed of non-Jewish students, holds his specialized seminar every other year at the Law School in Camden. When he is not teaching the course in Camden, he is teaching it as an undergraduate course in New Brunswick -- but using Hebrew texts. . . . Says Friedell: "The Talmud isn't studied for any particular reason, it's studied just as an end in itself. It's a boundless sea. . . And I've just scratched the surface". So there it is... 'with globalization taking place in every area of life', why should we rely only on the U.S. Constitution as our basis of law? Our option, of course, would be to obey the 'law of nations' via the International Criminal Court, founded on Talmudic Law. The Talmud 'constantly challenges, constantly encourages debate, and leaves the student always looking for new insights'. Those 'new insights' are nothing more than interpretations of vaguely written laws -- vaguely written to invite interpretation, depending upon the circumstances and the individuals concerned. To illustrate that the interpretation does indeed depend upon the individuals and circumstances involved: In 1979, three Jewish legislators, Elizabeth Holtzman, Joshua Eilberg and William Lehman, heavily supported by major Jewish organizations, successfully lobbied for passage of the 'Holtzman Amendment'. This new law created the OSI (Office of Special Investigations of the Justice Department) to ferret out alleged 'Nazi war criminals' living in the U.S. Over its twenty-year history, at a cost of $60,000,000, fifty octogenarians have been deported as a result of the mostly-Jewish staffed OSI's 'ferreting'. Two fairly recent example of their activities and double standards were found first in a 11-4-1998 Chicago Sun Times article (excerpted): "Jewish community leaders applauded an immigration judge's decision to deport (Bronislaw Hajda, 74) who served as a guard in a Nazi labor camp in WWII." One of the Jews said that, 'a measure of justice is achieved'. So, fifty-three years after the war, a former soldier (who was 21 years old at the time of his alleged 'crime') was deported, forever separated from family, friends, and his home of more than half a century, in spite of that fact that absolutely no crime could be proven against him. On the other side of the coin, just one month later, an Associated Press article that appeared in several major papers on 12-9-1998 stated: "Warsaw -- Israel has refused to extradite a Jew accused of atrocities against German prisoners in Poland after WWII, the Polish Justice Ministry said yesterday. Solomon Morel, who commanded the Swietochlowice camp for Germans in southern Poland from February to November 1945, allegedly tortured inmates and is considered responsible for at least 1,538 deaths. Israel refused Poland's request for extradition, saying the statute of limitations had run out". from: End Times - End Games by Hans Schmidt Where Jewish revenge is concerned, there is no statute of limitations, even when no crime has been proven against an individual. Yet, when a Jew commits genocide against gentiles, Israel refuses to extradite on grounds that the statute of limitations ran out. The OSI is funded by Americans (98% gentiles according to census figures). Now comes the International Criminal Court (ICC), as part and parcel of the globalization of law. Not a new idea, the ICC was first dubbed the International Court of Justice less than a year after the U.S. signed Americans up as members of the United Nations Organization, to keep the peace, mind you. As reported in U.S. Department of State Publication 2808, 1947, on page 2 we read: The Acting United States Representative to the United Nations to the Secretary General of the United Nations United States Delegation to the United Nations August 26, 1946 "EXCELLENCY: I have the honor to transmit herewith, under cover of a note dated August 16, 1946. . . a Declaration by the president of the United States of America [Harry S. Truman] recognizing, on behalf of the United States of America, the compulsory jurisdiction of the International Court of Justice under Article 36 of the Statute of the Court. My action today in depositing this Declaration, accepting on behalf of the United States the compulsory jurisdiction of the International Court of Justice, is further testimony to the determination of my Government to do all in its power to assure that the United Nations will fulfill the role assigned to it, which is nothing less than the preservation of world peace. One of the most elemental functions of the United Nations in the preservation of world peace is the development of procedures of pacific settlement. In these procedures, the role and functions of law is clear. We feel that international law is already sufficiently developed to serve as a guide and basis in international relations. We feel further that the best way of assuring its further development, and the only way of enabling it to fulfill its function, is by referring to a responsible international tribunal all disputes properly justiciable by such a tribunal. We accordingly look forward to a great development of the rule of law in international relations through a broad acceptance of the function of the Court in the spirit of this Charter. Accept, Excellency, the renewed assurances of my highest consideration. -- Herschel V. Johnson Harry Truman's declaration on behalf of the United States of America, on August 16, 1946, stated in part the recognition of the compulsory jurisdiction of the International Court of Justice in all legal disputes hereinafter arising concerning the interpretation of a treaty; any question of international law; and the nature or extent of the reparation to be made for the breach of an international obligation. In March, 1994, the U.S. Congress passed legislation authorizing the implementation of an International Criminal Court. Professor Cherif Bassiouni, of DePaul University in Chicago -- the leading academic proponent of the ICC, who is world-renowned for his expertise on the subject -- had proposed expanding greatly on the list of crimes under ICC jurisdiction, arguing in favor of the "broadest possible jurisdiction of the court". He proposed such additional international crimes as environmental offenses, insults to a foreign State and disseminating false or distorted information. The same group who created and controls the UN also owns and controls the media, which consistently disseminates false and distorted information. That won't count of course. The list of crimes isn't complete, by the way, and once the UN's Court is fully recognized we can count on the list ever-expanding as the ICC tests its power. A report by the Congressional Research Service (August 14, 1990 - Revised: March 9, 1993), authored by Daniel Hill Zafren, had this to say about adding to the list of 'International Crimes': (excerpted): "Summary: While a complex and controversial subject. . . recent world events have supplied a new impetus for serious study and consideration of such a proposal, along with the possibility of increasing categories of war crimes and, perhaps, even enactment of an international criminal code. Introduction: ". . . two areas of thought have been receiving increased attention. One is the possible formation of an international criminal court. . . and/or the already established international crimes, as well as taking jurisdiction over any additional crimes that may be established by any future international criminal code. Some arguments in favor of such a proposal: The United Nations International Law Commission has declared that the establishment of a permanent international criminal court is possible, and has suggested a workable structure for it. . . It would symbolize the supremacy of law. It would be the start of legal respect for, and making more effective, the construction of an international order. . . " Recall that the United Nations, a.k.a. the League of Nations, a.k.a. the League to Enforce Peace is "a Jewish idea", as Nahum Sokolow stated at the Carlsbad Congress on 8-24-1922. The International Criminal Court will serve as the 'keeper of peace' for the world, when the priesthood comes into its full power -- if they succeed. (They've been trying for 3,000 years and haven't succeeded yet). According to Theodore Pike's Israel - Our Duty our Dilemma, the final gathering of Jews won't be only in Israel, for they believe that the whole world will be their playground. From pp. 54-55): "In legal and business matters, the Gentile also found himself beneath equality with the Jew. This - as the Jewish Encyclopedia explains under 'Gentile' p.620 - was because the Gentiles had been 'outlawed' by God from the beginning: "The passage in Moses' farewell address: 'The Lord came from Sinai, and rose up from Seir unto them; he shined forth from Mount Paran'. . . indicates that the Almighty offered the Torah to the Gentile nations also, but, since they refused to accept it, He withdrew His 'shining' legal protection from them, and transferred their property rights to Israel, who observed His law. A passage in Habaakuk is quoted as confirming this claim: 'God came from Teman, and the Holy One from Mount Paran. . . He stood and measured the earth he beheld, and drove asunder [outlawed] the nations.'. . . the Talmud adds that He had observed how the Gentile nations steadfastly refused to obey the seven moral Noachian precepts, and hence He decided to outlaw them [the Gentile nations]". Baba Kama (38a) So, according to the Talmud, all land is their land. In an article by J. Zane Walley, of the Paragon Foundation titled "A Lightening Bolt of Reality -- The Forced Relocation of Rural Populations", Walley said: "I followed that thread into the spool and stumbled on a United Nations website, U.N. Protected Areas in the United States. The website contained 129 fine-print pages of U.N. Protected areas in America! 129! Millions upon millions of acres of our country are listed. Those protected areas are regulated by the IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources). When I compared the U.N protected areas to regions that are under fire from federal regulators and environmental takings that force people from the land, I found they are the same. In researching the IUCN I found that they are the environmental agency of the United Nations, bringing together 76 states, 111 government agencies, 732 NGOs (non-governmental organizations), 36 affiliates, and some 10,000 scientists and experts from 181 countries. Their membership list of signatory American agencies and NGOs has dumbfounded me. U.S agencies with IUCN membership and providing funding include: Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Department of the Interior, National Park Service, U.S. Agency for International Development, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce and Department of State. Other documents also have severely unnerved me. The United Nations Program of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development produced a how-to manual, The Forced Relocation of Rural Populations, which was distributed in Africa and included the stated mission, "To foster a more balanced spatial distribution of the population by promoting in an integrated manner equitable and ecologically sustainable development." Our own government has two publications in print that will raise your hackles: The first, Your Rights and Benefits as a Displaced Person, (Pub. No. FHWA-PD-95-010) states, "Government programs designed to benefit the public often result in acquisition of private property and sometimes in the displacement of people from their residences, businesses, or farms." The other pamphlet, Acquiring Real Property for Federal and Federal Aid Programs and Projects (Publication No. FHWA-PD-95 -005), spells out how the government can take your land. The U.S Government publications and the U. N. Manual have analogous themes." For our reader who wants to verify the 'UN Protected Area' program, specifically in the United States, listed by State alphabetically, the direct access URL is: Whose bright ideas do you suppose are the federal, state and local laws, rules, and regulations that have laid claim to hundreds of thousands of square miles of land in these united States? And progressive taxation on private property, so the worker bees lose their homes when the taxes climb beyond their ability to pay? And the tens of thousands of farms lost to the bankers, by hook and by crook? People (non-lawyers) who have spent years studying law in the U.S. claim there are 6,000,000 laws on the books today. When one takes into account the myriads of ordinances in the thousands of local units of government, combined with state and federal laws, along with bureaucratic rules and regulations that are given force of law, that figure doesn't sound like a stretch. In our Commonwealth of Pennsylvania for the 2001-02 session there are over 600 proposed new laws relating to taxation alone! See what the Protocols say about that: "From this follows that taxation will best be covered by a progressive tax on property. The tax upon the poor man is a seed of revolution. . . A tax increasing in a percentage ratio to capital will give a much larger venue than the present individual or property tax, which is useful to us now for the sole reason that it excites trouble and discontent among the people." Protocol No. 20 It would not be wise to dismiss this as lightly as I initially dismissed the quote in Menachem Elon's book on Jewish (Talmudic) Law. Could this 'vast and living work' called the Talmud, be the reason why judges in today's court systems are so flagrantly violating Constitutional law in favor of their 'interpretation' of the law? The answer to that can also be found in the Protocols: "Under our influence the execution of the laws of the goyim has been reduced to a minimum. The prestige of the law has been exploded by the liberal interpretations introduced into this sphere. In the most important and fundamental affairs and questions judges decide as we dictate to them, see matters in the light wherewith we enfold them for the administration of the goyim, of course, through persons who are our tools though we do not appear to have anything in common with them... In general, our judges will be elected by us only from among those who thoroughly understand that the part they have to play is to punish and apply laws and not to dream about the manifestations of liberalism at the expense of the educationary scheme of the State, as the goyim in these days imagine it to be." Protocol No. 15 Could this be the reason why the laws from both the U.S. Congress and State Legislatures - for that matter from Local Governments too - are written so broadly and vaguely? Of course it is. And under which 'authority' are the laws written? Is that authority the Constitution for the United States of America or the Babylonian Talmud? The answer to that is becoming all too frighteningly clear. Who drafts the language for those great numbers of laws, given we know it isn't the legislators themselves? The drafters are the swarms of lawyers (Jesus called them 'scribes') who work for the multitudes of non-governmental organizations and environmentalist groups. And who do you suppose owns the environmentalist movement? For state and local governments there are (at last count) 56 adjunct organizations created by the Council of State Governments (CSG) mentioned earlier. Proposed state laws are written by the lawyers for these various organizations and heavily lobbied within the halls and offices of government. To name but a few of these NGOs: National Association of Governors, National Conference of State Legislators, National Association of Counties (affiliated with the state associations, which brag of their 'offices on Capitol Hill in D.C.')... there are associations of Chiefs of Police, Mayors, Township Supervisors, Secretaries of State, Lieutenant Governors, the list is seemingly endless. It could be safely asserted that there is an 'association' for every elected official and appointed bureaucrat. On the other side of this same coin is the independent ALEC - American Legislative Exchange Council - purportedly established as a 'conservative alternative' to the more liberal NCSL. ALEC was established by Paul Weyrich and became the most powerful lobby in state legislatures during the mid-seventies through the early nineties attempting to dupe the legislators into calling for a Constitutional Convention, in order to finally rid themselves of that pesky instrument (the Constitution for the united States of America). They nearly succeeded. Before we leave off here we must mention that state legislators today - at least in Pennsylvania - are advised in their various committees by hired Executive Directors. As one researcher was told, their duties are to 'guide and direct the state legislators'. The Pennsylvania Association of County Commissioners is 'guided and directed' by an executive director who 'works closely with the state legislature in promulgating laws pursuant to the local governments'. The newest fad in Pennsylvania is a bewildering array of Tax Fairness Laws. This brings to mind another statement from the Protocols. "The administrators, whom we shall choose from among the public, with strict regard to their capacities for servile obedience, will not be persons trained in the art of government, and will therefore easily become pawns in our game in the hands of men of learning and genius who will be their advisers, specialists... Protocol No. 2 And how, indeed, are the people to perceive the underlying meaning of things when their representatives give the best of their energies to enjoying themselves?" Protocol No. 10 For the sake of continuity at this juncture, let us repeat two earlier quotes; the first from Protocol No. 9: "Above the existing laws without substantially altering them, and by merely twisting them into contradictions of interpretations, we have erected something grandiose in the way of results. These results found expression first in the fact that the interpretations masked the laws; afterwards they entirely hid them from the eyes of the governments owing to the impossibility of making anything out of the tangled web of legislation" And from Brian Kennedy's Freemasonic Destruction of Western Civilization: "The U.S. legal system enshrined the Talmudic practice of building up 'case law' on fine distinctions, and hairsplitting nuances. Black can be made white or vice-versa, under such a system. It is a made-to-order recipe for tyranny and manipulation by unseen authority... Of course, this was the intention from the very beginning. Jews have been controlled by their rabbis for two thousand years under the pernicious system." Here's what the law students in the U.S. are learning today. A book from Penn State University, written by Benjamin Henszey, Barry Myers and Reed Phalan titled Introduction to Basic Legal Principles states: "The law can be defined, therefore, as a body of rules for human conduct, enforced by a governing power, as the means by which the control of society is achieved. The term society includes the neighborhood, town, state, nation and to the extent control among nations is achieved through law, the world. The rules of law that exist today are the result of a process of gradual evolution over centuries of social progress, a process which continues unabated." Is there more than one book of law that has survived throughout centuries and is being used globally, including in the U.S. Supreme Court? The people of said 'book' are scattered to the ends of the earth and are bound to obey the laws contained therein. As we've also learned, the elite among the people of the Talmud are advisors to those who occupy - or they themselves occupy - positions of the highest political, economic and judicial power in this country and across the face of this earth. According to a document from Georgetown University titled the "Law of the ****ar" - being Jewish commercial law as early as 1060 AD in Europe - the Uniform Commercial Code is based on that law of the ****ar. With its adoption by all fifty states, the UCC has become national in nature. This explains the harmonization of Americas' laws with other nations, for the UCC is international law. For its application in the U.S., the UCC was constructed by a group of lawyers from the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws - a permanent standing sub-committee created by the American Bar Association - which claims the UCC is the single most important document since the Constitution. The NCCUSL is also known as the 'Uniform Law Commission'. From its history on the ULC website we read that: "Most significant was the 1940 Conference decision to attack major commercial problems with comprehensive legal solutions -- a decision that set in motion the project to produce the Uniform Commercial Code in partnership with the American Law Institute. The Code took ten years to complete and another 14 years before it was enacted across the country. It remains the signature product of the Conference. . . " So, one by one, state legislatures adopted the Uniform Commercial Code. Courts of Justice become courts of commerce, and Americans wonder why their 'Constitutional rights' are being trampled in those seemingly foreign courts. We found confirmation regarding the Law of the ****ar in a most unusual source - the Harper Collins' Atlas Of World History. On pages 102 and 103, titled: The Jewish diaspora - AD 70 to 1497 - we read that: "For over 2000 years the history of the Jews has been a story of external dispersion and internal cohesion. From about the 6th century... Jews became identified with international and regional trade." 'International and regional trade' is regulated under the the NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement) and GATT/WTO (General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade/World Trade Organization). These agreements control commerce between nations. Recall the speech of Secretary of State, Cordell Hull, in 1941 proclaiming the end of nationalism and the imperialism of industry and free trade to be commenced after the defeat of Germany. Recall the main points agreed upon by the gathering of churchmen in 1942 declaring a world monetary system, open borders, etc. Some of the people of the Talmud -- not all mentioned previously -- who wielded control of the U.S. Government, therefore its foreign policy since the early 1900s , under Wilson (WWI) and Roosevelt (WWII) are Supreme Court Justices Louis Brandeis and Felix Frankfurter, Samuel Untermeyer, Col. Edward Mandel House, Bernard Baruch, and the whole gang of international bankers. When international agreements made by the U.S. Congress prove to be nothing more than instruments of destruction to the manufacturing base, the jobs base, and therefore the very economic structure of our society... state legislators have an oath-bound duty to opt out of those agreements. NAFTA and GATT/WTO are often referred to as 'treaties'. They are not treaties. Both were passed in Congress by a simple majority of both chambers. Treaties are ratified only the the U.S. Senate by two/thirds of those present and consenting. As for the Uniform Commercial Code, the same above mentioned World Atlas has this to say, of the Jews: "Internal and external factors, including the widespread dispersal of Jews both in Islamic lands and throughout Christian Europe, Jewish group solidarity, facility of linguistic communication, and a uniform system of commercial law based on the Talmud accounted for the changes . . ." 'Facility of linguistic communication' - Hebrew school, so no matter where they live or what the language of their host country, they can always communicate. 'Jewish group solidarity' - a nation within nations. 'A uniform system of commercial law based on the Talmud' - the UCC. Before we leave the Uniform Commercial Code, let us see what the code itself reveals, again, from the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws (NCCUSL) website: U.C.C. - ARTICLE 1- GENERAL PROVISIONS PART 1. SHORT TITLE, CONSTRUCTION, APPLICATION AND SUBJECT MATTER OF THE ACT § 1-102. Purposes; Rules of Construction; Variation by Agreement. (1) This Act shall be liberally construed and applied to promote its underlying purposes and policies. 'Liberally construed' like the Talmud, to give the courts broad leeway in their interpretations, to promote its underlying purposes and policies? Think about it. Earlier we quoted from Ted Pike's book, which transcribed a statement from the Jewish Encyclopedia, to wit: ". . . the Talmud adds that He [Jehovah] had observed how the Gentile nations steadfastly refused to obey the seven moral Noachian precepts, and hence He decided to outlaw them [the Gentile nations]'. Baba Kama (38a) Before we leave the subject of Talmudic Law, we need to take a serious look at the 'seven moral Noachian precepts', also known as the Noahide (or Noachide) Law. . . from the Talmud, for the Goyim only. I repeat; DO NOT FAIL TO GO TO THIS LINK to get the BIG Picture: I do NOT ask that God bless America; I beg that He have MERCY on this rotten WHORE HOUSE of a country, with its rotten WHORE POLITICIANS who have sold us out, and which makes Sodom and Gomorrah look like a Church gathering. The horseman is here!

Rev. Dr. D. K. Schroeder Philippians 2:1-11 Sermon April 17, 2011 Hymns (from The Lutheran Hymnal): 160 "All Glory, Laud, and Honor" 162 "Ride On, Ride On In Majesty" 161 "Hosanna, Loud Hosanna" TRAVELING DOWN THE ROAD TO HUMILITY TEXT (vs. 5-8): “5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.” Most people living in Nebraska have, at some point in their lives, made the trip across our southwestern border into Colorado to have some time vacationing in the Rocky Mountains. Speaking for myself, I've done it quite a number of times in my life. I was there in my growing up years, and I've been back numerous times as an adult. ` I enjoy the mountains and the scenery, and there are so many different places to experience. I think the Rockies are beautiful, and I believe that we are privileged to have them so close at hand. About ten years ago, I took a little trip out there. At that time, I had a Mustang, and I was pulling my camper. During the trip, I was going from Denver south to Colorado Springs. So I got out my map and looked for a more scenic route to take, rather than take the freeway. I spotted this back way through the mountains, which was noted as "The Rampart Range Road." It started a ways south of Denver at Sedalia, and ran all the way south to Colorado Springs. So that's the route that I decided to take. When I got there, I discovered that the road was not paved. That didn't dissuade me however; the road looked nice enough and wide enough, so I headed my Mustang and camper down the road. Now let me give you some of the details of the road, details of which I was unaware at the outset. The road is just a touch over 65 miles long, and not an inch of it is paved. It has its good areas, but there are a whole lot of areas that aren't quite so nice. There are areas where it is just a single lane over some mountain passes, with a sheer drop of hundreds of feet beside you. If you met another car, someone would have to back up. And here I am, trying to maneuver this in a Mustang towing a camper! Official estimates say that this is a four-hour trip; however I don't think any sane person would want to be going that fast. If you ever want to travel that route, you'd better set aside the better part of a day. The worst part of it is, once you're on the road, you really can't get off of it. You either have to follow it to the end, or turn around and go back the way that you came. You can't just shoot back to the main highway. As beautiful as the scenery is, there comes a point where you say to yourself, "okay, I've had enough of this, I want to get out of here." And you just have to keep going. About a half hour after that, you see a sign that tells you that you're at the halfway point. From then on, it has pretty much ceased to be a pleasure trip, and has become more of a quest. I've used this little adventure of mine to illustrate another road as it applies to our text for today. This is the road that Jesus, our Saviour took. With today being Palm Sunday, we automatically think of the road into Jerusalem, where Jesus was riding on the donkey. It was a procession of grand proportions; however this was only a small fraction of the road Jesus took on our behalf as our Saviour. The road, upon which Jesus traveled, is the road of humiliation. Our Epistle lesson for today defines what we know theologically as Christ's state of humiliation. If you're wondering what that is, this is the time where Jesus, of his own doing, voluntarily set aside his divine majesty and glory, came down to this earth, and became a fully human man. This is something we talk about virtually every Sunday. When we say the Apostles' Creed, his state of humiliation is described in this manner: "He was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried." That in a nutshell describes Christ's entire state of humiliation. In our confirmation classes, we learn about this when we study the second article of the creed. If somebody is humiliated, it means that they are brought down to a lowered position. We can feel humiliated when somebody exposes something we've done that is wrong. People feel humiliation when, for example, their boss chews them out in front of other employees. Children can feel humiliation when they get punished in front of their friends. It's not a very good feeling. We have to remember that nobody humiliated Jesus. The Pharisees didn't do it. Caiaphas, the high priest didn't do it. Pontius Pilate didn't do it. Oh they might have tried, but it was something they could not do. It is something that Jesus did to himself. If you can imagine those times in your life when you felt humiliated, you know it isn't something pleasant. You want to escape it. You don't want to be embarrassed in front of other people. Now could you imagine intentionally doing it to yourself? That's what Jesus did! Something like that just goes against every fiber of our being. To take this even further, we look at Hebrews chapter 12 verse 2, which describes Jesus as "...the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God." Not only did Jesus willingly humiliate himself, but he found joy in doing so! What in the world could be going on in all this humiliation that could be conceived as being a joy? That's a fair question; and I'd like for you to keep it in mind as we head back now to the road to Jerusalem, and the account of Palm Sunday. We're told that there was a crowd there that welcomed him. Many people in that crowd were those who had either witnessed or heard about Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead. John's gospel explains that many people came to faith in Jesus because of this miracle. They knew whom he was and that he was the promised Saviour. Of course this infuriated the Jewish leaders. They not only plotted to kill Jesus, but to kill Lazarus also. They felt that they would be financially ruined because of this; so the only way they could see to get things back to normal was to eliminate the troublemakers. Jesus and Lazarus would have to go. This was the threat that loomed in the air amidst all of the Palm Sunday pomp and celebration. However, the crowds welcomed him. And more than that, they shouted "Hosanna! Hosanna to the Son of David!" "Hosanna" means "Lord, save us!" Those in the crowd knew that Jesus had come to save them. That's where we see the joy in all of this. When we confess the Nicene Creed together, it states the reason why Jesus humiliated himself. It says, "Who for us men, and our salvation, he came down from heaven..." That's the whole purpose! That's why Jesus came to Jerusalem! If you want to see the joy in Christ's humiliation, just look in the mirror! He came down from heaven, for me! He was conceived by the Holy Ghost and the Virgin Mary for me! He became a fully human man for me! He was crucified under Pontius Pilate for me! He suffered death and was buried for me! He rose again according to the Scriptures for me! He ascended into heaven for me! It's for the salvation of sinners the likes of you and me that gave Jesus the joy in all of this. It's his love and the fulfillment of that love that gave Jesus the joy along that road of humiliation. Think of it this way. A small boy is lying in the hospital. If he doesn't receive a kidney transplant, he will die. So his father donates one of his kidneys in order that his son might live. There is the possibility that the father might not survive the procedure. The operation is painful, and the recovery time is long. But the father gladly and willingly does this so his son has a chance at life. The joy of his son's survival is worth everything the father has to endure to make that happen. That's the joy our Saviour has when he looks ahead at what he has to endure to give life to us. His whole trip down the road of humiliation was to live the life we couldn't live, and to die the death we because of our sins deserve. The road to Jerusalem on Palm Sunday was a prelude to the ultimate humiliation anybody could experience, and that was to be put to death as a common criminal on a cross. Our Saviour traveled down the road of humiliation, so that we could travel down the road of faith. The road of faith tells us that our sins have been forgiven, and that Jesus has done everything so that we might be saved. The road of faith is one that clings only to Jesus for the hope of eternal life and salvation. When we're on that road of faith, we know that it is God who is taking us down that road. We do not have to do anything; rather all we do is just believe that through faith in Christ our road of faith will eventually lead us to our eternal heavenly home. Therefore we have a joy that is all our own. We rejoice and are thankful for what Jesus has done for us. A little boy who is receiving a kidney transplant from his father can do nothing to help with his father's gift that will give him life. All he can do is lie there on the operating table and receive the gift his father is giving him. That's what happens to us. God gives us the gift of faith that will give us life. That gift of faith is what joins us to Jesus our Saviour. Jesus willingly traveled down the road of humiliation so we might be eternally exalted. However, that road of humiliation wasn't easy at all. Certainly there were times of rejoicing along that road, but there were also times that were difficult and tragic beyond what we could even comprehend. Things got so difficult that Mark 14:36 records how Jesus even prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane these words: "Abba, Father, all things are possible for you. Remove this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will." Even though Jesus willingly and gladly carried out his mission, the road of humiliation was very tough. But there was no other way. There was no turning back. Things had to go the way they were going. And Jesus knew what was ahead for him. I began by telling you the story about driving down the Rampart Range Road in Colorado, and what a difficult trip that was. But there's a little bit of the story I didn't tell you. After I had been on the road for a couple hours, something I saw triggered a bit of "deja vu" in my mind. I felt that I had been down this road before. And then I remembered. About 25 years earlier, I was traveling with some family friends of mine in Colorado. Only that time, I was driving a big Lincoln Continental, also pulling a camper. Then scenes of that rather treacherous and scary trip began to go through my mind. The beautiful scenery had become almost a nightmare. I wish that I had remembered earlier, but I hadn't. And by the time I remembered, it was too late to turn back. There was nowhere else to go. There were no other alternate routes to take. I had to see the journey all the way through to the end. On that first Palm Sunday, Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey, which was representative of the road of humiliation upon which he was traveling. Men, women, and children laid palm branches and even their garments on the road ahead of him as a sign of honor and respect. They shouted "Hosanna!" as they praised him and looked to him as their Saviour. But soon, those shouts of praise would be gone. Another crowd would gather later that week and shout, "crucify him." And as he hung on the cross, there would be nobody who wanted anything to do with him except his mother, his good friend John, and one of the two thieves that hung next to him. The road of humiliation had come to a bitter end. That Palm Sunday, Jesus knew full well what was ahead of him, and it wasn't a pretty sight. But he also knew that there was a sinful world of God's children that needed to be saved. They needed the life he came to give them. And even though it wasn't a pleasant journey, there was joy in giving life to the humanity God loved. Today, as we sing "Hosanna, Lord save us," we know that he has done just that for us. It's ours through faith alone in Jesus our Saviour. And thanks to him, he walked the road of humiliation on this earth, so that our walk down the road of faith will lead us to our eternal heavenly home.

I guarantee that the statute of limitations won’t run out on any offenses Joyless DeJoy has committed. As to the rank and file within the USPS, perhaps they could have just coordinated to say it is not permissible to not follow an illegal order, but I am sure that their contracts do not offer them protection for such. There must be an expulsion of Trump, Inc. and there must not be any of the “let’s look forward” bullshit! Better late than never. He must be tried, (and since it so obvious to all that he is guilty, should go to jail/prison). He (Dejoy) is the very definition of a domestic enemy, as so many are in this administration. They’ve left me with no option against what I consider to be the greatest evil, but the Republican offering, who I also detest. Don’t give me a Green Protest vote option? OK, you got a Republican Protest vote now, you idiot fascists. I,too, am a registered Green. But, unlike you apparently, I can recognize the very serious attack on our democracy, on our freedoms, on the very bedrock of our governance. Progress only comes in painfully won steps, at least lasting progress does. While I do agree that neither major party is free from corporate control, this is not the time to stand on principles, to make up for doing nothing for decades and then taking a political stance that is only a temper tantrum. Vote Trump out! Then instead of tuning out, stay involved to either push the democrats left or work to build third party presence in our governance. Which is exactly how they lost in 2016. When they had a candidate who, for all her faults and her physical limitations, certainly was not showing constant signs of established dementia, and was not serving as a puppeteer for a wildly ambitious but not overly bright former prosecutor who apparently is the actual candidate. And speaking of Ms. Harris, one would be tempted to conclude that that is fact more than speculation by her recent reference to her “Harris Administration” followed by a quick walk back as she cleaned the mess off her tennis shoes while mumbling ‘of course Joseph Biden will be the President’… Pennsylvanians can still write in Hawkins and Walker - just make sure to use their names exactly as used on their voter registration. You can’t bring in pre-written stickers with the names on them to just stick to the ballot (the purported excuse being that the machines ‘can’t read’ things written on stickers). Which means you need to be sure of what the correct name is BEFORE you fill out your ballot. No requirement that the candidate apply to run as a write-in as in some other states. So Pennsylvanians who know what Pennsylvania has always been about, just remember no one makes a fool of anyone else without the other’s PERMISSION. Until every remnant of organized crime is purged from our government, looking back and extreme prosecution should be our primary objective, This needs to go on for at least 30 years! Yay for a federal judge who isn’t part of the Trump cult. I wish I knew of a way to thank the good federal judges and start a process of removing the fascist ones that McConnell/Trump have rammed through. Now it’s time to prosecute DeJoy and imprison him forever. It’s obvious that every time there’s an article showing the criminality of the Trump administration, people such as yourself come here to deflect, twist and turn so somehow you can slag Democrats while never saying a bad word about Trump and the GOP. A vote for anyone other than Biden in this presidential election is a vote for Trump. No true environmentalist could ever vote for Trump or fail to see that Trump and the GOP are far worse for the environment than Biden/Harris. Trump has gutted the EPA, most environmental laws, fired environmental scientists, placed environment-killing criminals at the head of public lands and related agencies, gutted protected areas, gutted the Endangered Species Act, etc. Trump is a developer, and has a career history of destroying intact ecosystems and doing other environmental harms. And yet you claim to be a Green and say you’ll vote for Trump. That’s like a Jewish person saying they’ll vote for Hitler! All those sorting machines left out in the weather and now ruined should be replaced at DeJoy’s and Trump’s personal expense and they must be made to be reinstalled immediately. You seem to be someone who is unable to play the game the Dems are playing, and its simpler to pretend that you have some nobler reason for not standing up when the times and the country require it. The Democratic Party is at this point is utterly corrupt, is going down for the third time,AND KNOWS IT. So if it makes you feel bolder, by all means try your best to seat a puppet so addled that it is genuinely painful to listen to his ramblings, while the nation is ‘led’ by a former prosecutor and full-time do-whatever-it-takes politician which the Dems could find no other way to foist into the top position, given her very short-lived time spent in the primary lineup without actually running. Sure sounds like a perfect way to make Trump’s day with a landslide re-election rather than one which is eked out. I don’t believe Trump is the greater evil. He’s a jerk, but he wanted to reduce hostilities twice and the Democrats have been the ones urging more war. The Democrats started 5 wars the last time they had the presidency, Trump hasn’t started one yet. Why does Biden want to increase the War department budget? Isn’t there any more pressing unmet spending needs in America? America has made it’s biggest mistakes ever with unfit presidents surrounded by advisors with ill-intent for the people. Biden will certainly be such a president. He’s obviously losing it, and he never had all that much to start with. I accept now that the Greens have no future, while the Democrats have a party. The Democrats are the bigger enemies of Green sensibilities, because they falsely claim to share some of them. The Greens have or don’t have whatever future the people of this country decide that they do. Not more. And not less. And every citizen of this country has a say in that. If you’re fortunate to be in a state which allows write-ins in a general election such as Pa, you have options even this year. If not, you have and will continue to have options to support and bolster the membership, the visibility and delineate the policies of the Greens at every opportunity. Maybe less time on Facebook chatting and a lot more on sites which detail what the Green Party has to offer. But self-fulfilling prophecy is to assume the worst simply because you’ve been indoctrinated by the ‘irrelevance’ of 3 Ps to the point where only assuming the worst seems normal. The Greens are on fewer ballots, they have two candidates, one of which is invisible. It’s over. Maybe the movement for a people’s party can make a mark. They have an ambitious leadership focusing on a broad presence in 2022. They’ll do better with Trump to oppose than if Biden wins and the democrats go to sleep like they did from 09-17. At some point repeated failure to grow must be accepted and energies must be turned to other approaches. Removed in Wisconsin and Montana, too. The 10% chance that I could have been swayed to vote for Biden has now officially reached 0%. Which is a pretty good indication of where your party’s brand is today. You already lost to Trump once. You should be polling miles of ahead of him now, yet the debates are coming up and it’s still close. The number one reason cited for voting for Biden is “he’s not Trump.” You promote that as the reason to vote for him yourself. Not his great Republican Lite policies and center right track record in office – “he’s not Trump.” If you had a spine, you’d admit that Trump resurrected your party from the dead. People have unregistered from your shit sandwich of a party in droves. We left because we’re sick of your fecklessness, corruption, and Republican Lite ideology. Your learned helplessness and noseholding are your problems – others here can act for themselves. And a true environmentalist can recall the words of Barack Obama: “Under my administration, America is producing more oil than at any time in the last eight years. We’ve opened up new areas for exploration. We’ve quadrupled the number of operating rigs to a record high. We’ve added enough new oil and gas pipeline to circle the Earth and then some…” According to the Never Biden site, Wisconsin has the same write-in rules Pa. does and voters can also make countable/viable votes for Hawkins and Walker there also. So there’s two swing states and the only way voters in EITHER/BOTH states depends on whether they WANT to do it. “CAN’T do it” is off the

Photo taken in:OpoleYear when photo was taken:1941Country name at time of photo:PolandCountry name today:Poland This is a picture of the post office in Opole ghetto, Poland, which my father had taken by a local Jewish photographer in May 1941. My parents, Wilhem and Johanna Schischa [nee Friedmann], were deported to Opole ghetto in Poland from Vienna on 26th February 1941. They were murdered a year later in either Belzec or Sobibor concentration camp. I own a large number of letters, which my parents wrote to Aunt Fany, Aunt Berta and my grandmother from the ghetto before they were murdered. Aunt Berta gave me a little leather suitcase after the war which included all documents and letters she had collected before Aunt Fany and my grandmother were deported. That way all these valuable documents were preserved. Apart from these letters, my father also sent photos from Opole ghetto. Opole was a village that had been sealed off. Jews who lived there weren't allowed to leave, and more and more Jews arrived. There were a bakery, a butcher's shop, a barber's shop, restaurants and a photo shop, just like in any normal village. However, nothing could be brought into the ghetto, so food soon became extremely expensive, and my parents' depended on help from their relatives in Vienna. It must have been very important to my father, to have life in the ghetto captured on film. The Jewish photographer took pictures of everything my father told him to capture on film. My father inscribed things on some of the pictures and sent them to Vienna. In his letters to his relatives my father expressed both his thanks for all the parcels they sent to him and my mother, and his fear of an uncertain future. In a letter from 1st April 1941 he wrote: ?My dear ones, Yesterday we received your 10th parcel. Contents: tin of sardines, dessert; the milk was confiscated. We truly appreciate your efforts. If it weren?t for you, we would be in a bad way. I pay 1 zloty for regular parcels; cakes cost 4,80 zloty, so please don?t send sweets any longer. Flour, bread, a bit of sugar, lemons, oranges, pasta and other small things are free. A spirit stove would be a real blessing, but a liter of spirit costs 7 to 8 zloty, so there's no way. 1 zloty is worth half a Reichsmark. We had doughnuts and long plaited buns made from all the flour you sent; what a delicacy that was! Yesterday we had a truly delicious meal as well, vegetable soup with noodles and farfelakh, made from the ingredients you sent. We preferred it to meat.?

Pope Francis Hails St. Teresa of Ávila as Exemplar of Courage and Spiritual Motherhood When she was nearly 40, Saint Teresa experienced profound changes within her own soul in contemplative prayer, and remarkable visions that seemed to come from God. VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis has hailed St. Teresa of Ávila as exemplar of courage and spiritual motherhood in a letter marking fifty years since the 16th century Spanish mystic was declared the first female Doctor of the Church. “Despite the five centuries that separate us from her earthly existence, the flame that Jesus lit within Teresa continues to shine in this world that is always in need of brave witnesses, capable of breaking any barrier, be it physical, existential or cultural,” Pope Francis wrote in the letter. The pope’s letter to Bishop José María Gil Tamayo of Ávila was read aloud at the inaugural Mass for an international congress on St. Teresa that is taking place in Ávila, Spain and virtually via livestream April 12-15. St. Teresa of Ávila was “‘an exceptional woman,’ as Saint Paul VI defined her,” Pope Francis said. “Her courage, her intelligence, and her tenacity to which she united a sensitivity for the beautiful and a spiritual motherhood toward all those who approached her work, are an exemplary example of the extraordinary role that women have played throughout history in the Church and society.” Pope Paul VI declared St. Teresa of Jesus a Doctor of the Church on Sept. 27, 1970. The title Doctor of the Church denotes recognition of the importance of a saint’s writings and teachings for Catholic theology. Since St. Teresa, three other female saints have been declared Doctors of the Church. St. Catherine of Siena was recognized with the title one week after St. Teresa. And St. Therese of Lisieux and St. Hildegard of Bingen were declared Church doctors by Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI respectively. In his letter, Pope Francis said St. Teresa of Ávila “continues to speak to us today through her writings and her message is open to all.” “Having her as a friend, companion and guide in our earthly pilgrimage confers security and peace to the soul,” he added. St. Teresa was a Spanish Carmelite reformer and mystic. She was born in the Castilian city of Ávila during the year 1515, the third child in a family descended from Jewish merchants who had converted to Christianity during the reign of King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella. When she was nearly 40, Teresa experienced profound changes within her own soul in contemplative prayer, and remarkable visions that seemed to come from God. Under the direction of her confessors, Teresa wrote about some of these experiences in an autobiography that she completed in 1565. This revolution in her spiritual life enabled Teresa to play a significant role in the renewal of the Church that followed the Council of Trent. She proposed a return of the Carmelites to their original rule of life, a simple and austere form of monasticism – founded on silence and solitude – that had received papal approval in the 12th century and was believed to date back to the Old Testament prophet Elijah. Together with her close collaborator, the priest and writer later canonized as Saint John of the Cross, she founded what is known today as the Order of Discalced Carmelites – “discalced,” meaning barefoot, symbolizing the simplicity to which they chose to return the order after a period of corruption. The reform met with fierce opposition, but resulted in the founding of 30 monasteries before her death in 1582. St. Teresa of Ávila was canonized on March 22, 1622, along with St. Ignatius Loyola, St. Francis Xavier, and St. Philip Neri. In his letter, Pope Francis encouraged the priests, religious, and laity involved in the international congress on St. Teresa to continue spreading her teaching. The international congress is the joint effort of the Catholic University of St. Teresa of Ávila, the Discalced Carmelites, the local diocese, and the “Katholische Universität Eichstätt-Ingolstadt” in Germany. Speakers at the conference include Cardinal Aquilino Bocos Merino and Cardinal Ricardo Blázquez Pérez, the archbishop of Valladolid. Pope Francis signed his letter to the congress on March 19, the feast of St. Joseph, and noted that St. Teresa of Ávila had a great devotion to St. Joseph. “She took him as a teacher, advocate, and intercessor. She entrusted herself to him, having certainty that she would receive the graces that she asked for. From this experience, she encouraged others to do the same,” the pope said. “The saints always go hand in hand, and they sustain us by the trust placed in their intercession. May they intercede for you,” Pope Francis said. - st. teresa of avila

- Mirjam Pressler:Many, Many Peepholes In describing our need for books, Mirjam Pressler has often been quoted as saying, Without books, the world remains narrowed; the possibilities for what is imaginable and thus also do-able, are limited. We need many books, many, many different books. Many little peepholes in the wall that stands between us and the ofttimes inexplicable world. ... And naturally they should not be only the ones that everyone wants to look through. That would be an irresponsible reduction of our perspectives of the world.(Pressler in Gelberg, Werkstattbuch 71) As an author and a translator, Pressler herself has created many such peepholes of highest literary quality that expand perspective and worldview. What’s more, with her kind of peepholes she stands up for the rights of the weak and disadvantaged, for religious tolerance, and against fascism, both in the past and the present. Pressler is a champion for intercultural understanding through literature. With her nomination for the shortlist of the Hans Christian Andersen Award, we have someone who excellently fulfills the IBBY mission of promoting intercultural understanding through children’s books. A Roundabout Path to Literature Pressler has described her path to literature as an accidental one. She was born in Darmstadt, Germany, in 1940, as the illegitimate child of a Jewish mother. The girl grew up in the care of non-Jewish foster parents who belonged to the lower social class, as well as in an orphanage, thus able to survive the Holocaust. Pressler grew up in intellectually narrow confines, often experiencing corporal punishment and a sense of ostracism and insecurity. Although reading was considered a waste of time, it became a secret sanctuary in her childhood. Later, Pressler studied painting and languages in Frankfurt am Main and Munich; she also spent one year living in a kibbutz in Israel. Upon returning to her native country, she married and had three daughters, whom, after her divorce, she raised alone. One of the variety of jobs she took was running her own jeans shop. When the landlord cancelled her shop’s rental contract, she decided, at the age of thirty-nine, to supplement her income from a part-time office job by writing her first young adult novel. Within the next two years, she had published five further novels. Pressler’s career as a translator began in 1983, in an equally unusual manner. On a whim after a party, she decided to translate a book from Dutch, even though she did not know the language. Hence, she could only complete the project with a dictionary and a grammar book. Since then, she has written over fifty books for children and young adults—including picture books, early readers—as well as books for adults, and she has also translated more than two hundred other works. Her anti-authoritarian novels have become part of the modern classics of German children’s and young adult literature. Often the themes and plots of her books are connected in some way with her own biography, making the stories “taste of real-life experience,” as her publisher, Hans-Joachim Gelberg has put it (Budeus-Budde: Wenn Geschichten nach Erlebtem schmecken 5). In many other countries, it is also possible to look through her peepholes: Her debut novel, Bitterschokolade [Bitter Chocolate], for example, has been translated into eighteen other languages. Mirjam Pressler is not only a tireless writer but [End Page 26] she also spends many days of the year on the road, giving author readings and meeting with her young readers. In her home city of Landshut, near Munich, she is the patron of the Landshut Youth Book Prize, which is awarded annually by the local young adult reading club. Giving a Voice to the Weak At the center of Mirjam Pressler’s books is the topic of childhood and adolescence. In her works, she does not describe a protective, idyllic picture-book world of growing up. Her books deal with the difficult side of living—with damaged childhoods, with children and young people who suffer and long only for a little happiness. Her protagonists include, for example, the overweight Eva in Bitterschokolade; the handicapped Thomas, who like his...

The American billionaire businessman Mark Cuban has a humongous net worth of $4.3 billion, as of 2022. According to Forbes, 2020, the billionaire stood at the 177th position. To detail, Cuban is a media personality and a proprietor along with being an entrepreneur. The businessman is one of the founders of Broadcast.com, a video portal that was then founded as Audionet. Moreover, Cuban owns Dallas Mavericks, an American professional basketball team. Also, he has a strong portfolio in numerous businesses. Here are some quick facts about the billionaire businessman. |Full Name||Mark Cuban| |Date of Birth||July 31, 1958| |Age||63 Years Old| |Place Of Birth||Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States| |Profession||Entrepreneur, Film Producer, Television Producer, Actor, Investor| |Height||1.9 m (6’3″)| |Weight||189 lbs (86 kg)| |Color Of Hair||Dark Black| |Color Of Eye||Brown| |Social Media||Instagram, Twitter| |Father’s Name||Norton Cuban| |Mother’s Name||Shirley Cuban| |Education||Indiana University Bloomington University of Pittsburgh |Spouse||Tiffany Stewart (m. 2002)| |Children||Alexis Sofia Cuban |Net Worth||4.5 billion USD (2021)| |Last Updated||May, 2022| Mark Cuban: Net Worth and Income The net worth of the entrepreneur is a gigantic 4.5 billion USD, as of 2021. The billionaire owns the American basketball team Dallas Mavericks. To detail, Cuban purchased the professional team in the year 2000 for $285 million. Likewise, the businessman also launched a reality TV show named The Benefactor in 2004. In the series, Mark brought together a group of 16 people who competed for the winning prize of $1 million. Similarly, in 2011, Cuban appeared in the famous American reality show Shark Tank where he invested for several seasons. In season 5 of Shark Tank, Cuban received $30,000 per episode. By the end of the season, the businessman took $870,000 home. Furthermore, his salary was increased by $1200 per episode after season 5. For the sixth season, the businessman earned $31,200 per episode. Likewise, it additionally increased by $1,288 during the seventh season of the series which brought a total sum of $32,488 per episode. Cuban kept receiving 4% raise with every season and for the eighth season, the billionaire bagged $33,829 per episode. During the total 111 episodes of the series, it’s been reported that Cuban invested in 85 deals which caused him a hefty sum of $19.9 million. Among these, the largest deal was investing in “Ten Thirty-One Productions” for which Mark pitched in $2,000,000. Another big source of the net worth of Mark Cuban is him selling his video portal “broadcast.com” to Yahoo for a humongous $5.7 billion. To illustrate, Cuban established the particular video portal with his colleague Todd Wagner in September 1995, and later in 1999, Yahoo bought it. Net Worth of Mark Cuban in Different Currencies Here is the net worth of the billionaire in different currencies, including Bitcoin. |Pound Sterling||£ 3,322,259,550| |Australian Dollar||A$ 6,200,455,500| |Canadian Dollar||C$ 5,692,410,000| |Indian Rupee||₹ 333,652,500,000| Houses and Cars Mark Cuban owns a grand mansion in Texas which he purchased in 1999 spending $14 million. The house located in Preston Hollow spans 24,000 feet and features ten bedrooms and thirteen bathrooms. Cuban bought this mega-mansion after selling his company to Yahoo, back in 1999. This gated California house owned by Mark Cuban is located in Laguna Beach of California. In 2018, the American billionaire purchased this oceanfront mansion for $19 million. The house built in 2010 boasts six gorgeous bedrooms spanning over 7,867 square feet. Likewise, there are six full bathrooms and three half bathrooms. Vacation Home in Grand Cayman Reportedly, the owner of Dallas Mavericks owns a vacation house located in Grand Cayman. This seasonal house is titled Far Out on the East End. The cars owned by Mark Cuban are mentioned here: 1966 Buick LeSabre: Cuban drove this LaSabre when he was in his early 20s. The businessman purchased this rusty two-wheeler for $200 at that time. Fiat X1/9: This is another car Mark purchased during his early career. The car cost him $4,300 to $6,710. 1955 Ford Customline: This sleek two-wheeler sporting a white exterior and green interior looks really suave Mark purchased it in 2013. This vintage custom line was later sold for a hefty sum of $35,990. Mercedes-Benz S600 Pullman Guard limousine: The car is worth $1.56 million and indeed is one of the most expensive models made by Mercedes-Benz. Private Jet and Yacht According to the sources, Cuban owns a yacht named Fountainhead which is in fact the biggest private yacht built by Feadship, an elite group of yacht constructors. Currently, it is one of the most luxurious yachts which is 288 feet long (88 meters) and costs about $377 million. Mark Cuban owns three private jets- Boeing 767 and Gulfstream V. In 1999, the entrepreneur purchased the Gulfstream V for $40 million. Likewise, his next private jet Boeing 767 costs around $170 million which is a registered customized mid-size jet. Also, he owns Gulfstream 500, powered by Rolls-Royce/BMW engine. The jet is worth $45 million. Lifestyle and Vacation The rich businessman loves playing basketball and is engaged in certain workout regimes. His favorite go-to exercises are elliptical training, cardio, and stair-stepping. He does cardio almost every day of the week and aims for burning around 500 calories each day. A right diet is another fitness secret of Mark Cuban. Reportedly, he eats around 2500 calories and his choice of meal is mostly fish and salad. The businessman declared himself a vegetarian in October 2019. The billionaire businessman is not so fond of having vacations. As a matter of fact, Cuban never went on one for seven years. Cuban purchased a house in Laguna Beach as a vacation pad for him and the family where he is often spotted spending quality time with his wife and children. Mark Cuban has his own charity foundation named Mark Cuban Foundation that helps deprived students by providing them with different types of free education camps. Likewise, the billionaire donated $100,000 to the National Association of Black Journalists for the COVID-19 Relief Fund. Reportedly, Cuban pledged a huge sum of $10 million to improve workplace etiquette in the NBA. Similarly, in 2021, he contributed $1,250,000 to Dallas Mayor’s Fund which went to the Winter Storm Relief. Cuban has also invested in Luminaid, a solar company that provides light sources to areas that are affected by disasters. Shows, Investments, Endorsements, and Book Publication The businessman has appeared in quite a bunch of movies and TV series and has produced a handful of them as well. Some of the films and shows in which Cuban has appeared are All In (2006), Entourage (2011, 2015), The Loop (2007), The Rookie (2019), Brooklyn Nine-Nine, etc. The active digital personality is also an investor in Shark Tank. Moreover, in 2005, Mark produced a film entitled Bubble. The businessman has dipped his feet in several businesses endeavors. Cuban is the owner and founder of 2929 Entertainment, a media company that has produced the motion pictures like Two Lovers (2008), Serena (2014), etc. Likewise, he has invested in Landmark Theatres and AXS TV. Also, Cuban is the founder of the digital network HDNet. As mentioned earlier, he is the owner of Dallas Mavericks and a regular capitalist of the American reality show, Shark Tank. Teaming with his fellow classmate, Mark, in 1995, started Audionet which later became broadcast.com. Later in 1999, “broadcast.com” was sold to Yahoo and it is believed to have a market value of $184.27 billion by the year 2027. Some other investments by Mark Cuban are in food items, restaurants, and food delivery chains. To illustrate, he has pitched in his money in protein bars Nut ‘N More, tomato soup, etc. Likewise, he is involved in a restaurant company named Tom & Chee and an American meal service Plated. Reportedly, the billionaire also has invested in UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship) and Lions Gate Entertainment. Back in 2012, the businessman endorsed the Sketcher’s Relax Boots. Cuban appeared in their commercial promoting their skate shoes. Likewise, Mark also appeared in 2003’s NBA commercial and AT&T Telecommunication company. In the same way, during the presidential run of the United States, the entrepreneur supported Joe Biden. Cuban has also shown his support to the newly launched cryptocurrency- Dogecoin. Stating it as the strongest crypto coin, the businessman has $494 worth of it. Furthermore, he also owns other cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum. Cuban has written several books, either by himself or collaborating with other authors. Some of such publications are mentioned here: - How to Win at the Sport of Business: If I Can Do It, You Can Do It (2013) - Kid Start-Up: How YOU Can Become an Entrepreneur (2018) - Entrepreneur to Millionaire: How to Build a Highly Profitable, Fast-Growth Company and Become Embarrassingly Rich Doing It (2021) - Preston Hollow: A Brief History (2021) - Life Is Half Random: These Are the Questions and the Answers (2020) Born on July 31, 1958, Mark Cuban was raised in a Jewish family. He attended Indiana University and graduated with a Business degree in 1981. Afterward, he moved to Dallas where he established a computer consulting company “MicroSolutions“. To illustrate, MicroSolutions generated $30 million annual revenue and this business later made him a millionaire when he sold it to CompuServe after few years. Likewise, in 1995, Mark and his friend Todd Wagner founded Audionet, which later became broadcast.com. The company streaming live videos on the internet was purchased by Yahoo! Inc. in 1999. Then in 2000, Cuban spent $285 million to purchase Dallas Mavericks, the NBA team. Currently, the team Dallas Mavericks is worth $2.45 billion. The business mogul has invested in various sectors and is also a successful shark investor. Cuban met his wife Tiffany Stewart in 1997 and married her in 2002. Together they have three children. Three Interesting Facts About Mark Cuban - In the late 1990s, Cuban wanted to buy the Pittsburgh Penguins Hockey club but his attempt could not be succeded. - Mark Cuban did offer $10 million to former President Donald Trump to have a four-hour interview with him. - While in college, Mark did several works like teaching dance lessons, selling his stamp collection to earn money. Frequently Asked Questions Why is Mark Cuban enlisted in Guinness Book of Records? After selling broadcast.com to Yahoo!, Cuban purchased Gulfstream V for $40 million on the same day. It happens to be the largest online transaction and is recorded in the Guinness Book of World Records. What is the hobby of Mark Cuban? Amongst all, Cuban loves playing basketball. When he was 12, he even sold garbage bags to his neighbors for buying high-priced basketball shoes. Well today, he owns a yacht with a basketball court on it. What is the personality type of Mark Cuban? Mark falls in an ENTJ personality type which is known to be Extraverted, Intuitive, Thinking, and Judging.

News and Headlines: In The News, Politics, World News, Commentary/Opinion. In The News: In 2018, then president Donald Trump signed the “First Step Act” which would apply the lesser sentences to those convicted between 1986 and 2010. But it was not clear whether the relief applied to low-level offenders such as Tarahrick Terry, a Black man whose case went before the Supreme Court. Terry, 33, was sentenced to 15 years in prison in 2008 for possession of 3.9 grams of crack cocaine. He asked for a reduced sentence under the First Step Act but the court ruled that the law did not apply to his situation. “Unfortunately, the text will not bear that reading,” said Justice Sonia Sotomayor in a separate opinion. “Fortunately, Congress has numerous tools to right this injustice.” The state had previously been opening slowly in a series of phases. However, the entire state is now opening at once and those vaccinated no longer have to wear masks indoors. Other lifted restrictions include: physical distancing requirements, capacity limits and group sizes. Events with an audience of more than 5,000 people indoors will require proof of vaccination or a negative COVID test, The Washington Post reports. That’s likely not surprising to Michiganders who’ve watched their state government enact unprecedented and the most severe COVID-19 restrictions in the Midwest. Whitmer banned stores larger than 50,000 square feet from selling paint, advertising for “nonessential” goods, and home improvement supplies. Operating a motorboat could bring criminal charges, as could traveling to a secondary home. Continuing restrictions resulted in a 51st ranking for Michigan in nationwide COVID-19 economic recovery, WalletHub found. The state will use $101 million in federal COVID-19 money to fund Build, Learn, Grow scholarships that will go to families working in essential industries with incomes 127% of the federal poverty level or below. The scholarships run from May through October and cover 80% of the early care and education programs’ tuition. The state plans to offer 50,000 scholarships through the Indiana Family and Social Services Administration. “By connecting families with quality education programs for their children close to home, and covering a majority of the cost, parents can get back to work more easily,” Rep. Don Lehe, R-Brookston, said. “Providing kids new learning opportunities is critical to keeping our state moving in the right direction.” “I expected that I was paying this fortune, all this time and energy, to learn how to think. But they are forcing you to think the way they want you to think,” Park said in an interview with Fox News. “I realized, wow, this is insane. After getting into a number of arguments with professors and students, eventually Yeonmi “learned how to just shut up” in order to maintain a good GPA and graduate. “Because I have seen oppression, I know what it looks like,” said Yeonmi, who by the age of 13 had witnessed people drop dead of starvation right before her eyes. “The people here are just dying to give their rights and power to the government. That is what scares me the most,” the human right activist said. She accused American higher education institutions of stripping people’s ability to think critically. “That is what is happening in America,” she continued. “People see things but they’ve just completely lost the ability to think critically.” Mother unloads on school board over young children being taught about masturbation, anal sex, transgenderism Swan’s statement came in response to a new bill, S.B. 0818, which mandates that schools teaching sex education in the state must comply with the National Sex Education Standards. The bill has passed both chambers of the Illinois legislature and now awaits signing by Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker. By the time children reach grades 6-8, they are expected to be able to “define vaginal, oral, and anal sex” and are bombarded with information about the influence of substances in “sexual decision-making” and the nitty-gritty of sexually transmitted diseases. The book, “It’s Perfectly Normal: Changing Bodies, Growing Up, Sex, and Sexual Health,” has been the subject of controversy and outrage before. It includes illustrated depictions of naked teens and adults, sexual intercourse, different types of birth control, homosexuality, and masturbation. Police said protesters pulled the driver from his vehicle and witnesses told police that demonstrators began striking him. The driver was taken into custody and was being treated for injuries at a hospital. A witness told Minnesota Public Radio that the SUV was going very fast and appeared to accelerate as it got closer to demonstrators who had blocked off a street. D.J. Hooker said the driver struck a car parked across one of the traffic lanes, sending that car flying. “There was one line of barriers and then a second barrier, and he sped up. He sped up. He went even faster as he approached us. You could hear it … start going even faster as he got close to us,” Hooker said. He told Minnesota Public Radio, “the car went through the air and it hit a young woman.” Another witness, Brett Williams, said the woman was thrown into a stop light. During the Cold War there was the nuclear arms race. Today, a lesser known race that’s taking us to the bottom of the ocean. We’ll tell you why we need the rare minerals that lie beneath, and the boost they provide for our technology and weapons. Billions of taxpayer dollars are being spent on coronavirus relief. And with big spending comes a big chance for fraud. We follow the money and the criminal charges spreading from the pandemic. And some of today’s news media seems to love censorship and hate journalism… even bending the facts to fit a specific narrative. A look at Sharyl’s book, “Slanted,” and the disturbing trend to silence the truth and push narratives. The Army, the United States’ largest military branch, is celebrating its 246th birthday. Supporters of former US president Donald Trump sailed on yachts and other vessels at the Trumparilla boat parade in San Diego, while Trump flags and MAGA merchandise filled the area. “Why is State Senator Jake Corman of Pennsylvania fighting so hard that there not be a Forensic Audit of the 2020 Presidential Election Scam? Corman is fighting as though he were a Radical Left Democrat, saying that a Forensic Audit of Pennsylvania not take place. Why is Senator David Argall playing the same game? Are they stupid, corrupt, or naive? What is going on? Other State Senators want this Forensic Audit to take place—immediately. I feel certain that if Corman continues along this path of resistance, with its lack of transparency, he will be primaried and lose by big numbers. What went on in Philadelphia and other areas of the State must be properly and legally exposed. If it is not, just like with open Borders, we won’t have a Country anymore!” Trump said in the statement. The G7 Summit happened this weekend and these world leaders are hypocrites! Historian and author Doug Wead is joined by constitutional attorney and noted Trump ally Jenna Ellis to discuss the former president’s 75th Birthday on June 14th, and both the current and historical impact ‘The Donald’ has had and will have on the United States. – via Wake Up America with Rob Finnerty, President Biden has made several remarks about autocratic governments and whether or not democracies will be able to compete with them in the 21st Century. Glenn breaks down Biden’s recent statement on the same topic from Sunday’s G7 presser, explaining how the president is planting the seeds for the Great Reset. And when the world’s biggest superpowers have a ‘monopoly of governments,’ Glenn says, no longer will YOU have the freedom to live how you choose. ‘They’re making a world where you cannot escape.’ It couldn’t be more clear that Biden’s court nominees are judicial activists, but they will say ANYTHING they can to never admit it. Famous actor Jon Voight has released a video slamming the mainstream media for the way they’ve essentially given Joe Biden’s son, Hunter, a pass for using the N-word multiple times in a series of texts with his attorney. Jon Voight makes an excellent point. How is it that Donald Trump can be endlessly accused of racism and people like Paula Deen, Megyn Kelly & Morgan Wallen can be smeared as racists for doing less than Hunter Biden, while Joe Biden’s son gets a complete pass for the sort of behavior that would destroy anyone the Left didn’t want to protect? Why is there such a double standard? There is an easy answer to that. Demers’ imminent departure comes as the DOJ is under fire for searching electronic records of reporters at major national news outlets, including The New York Times, The Washington Post and CNN, and those of some Democratic lawmakers as part of investigations into the leaks of classified information. The lawmakers included Rep. Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee. Demers oversaw those investigations, which occurred during the administration of President Donald Trump. ‘The Next Revolution’ host slams elites and corporations saying it’s time for Americans to ‘take back power.’ “China’s stated ambitions and assertive behavior present systemic challenges to the rules-based international order and to areas relevant to alliance security,” NATO leaders said in a communique after their summit. In a sign of a common position emerging on China, no longer seen as a benign trading partner, the European Union has already designated Beijing a “systemic rival.” Allied leaders are also concerned about Russia’s military build-up near Ukraine, as well as its covert and cyber attacks to undermine Western states. NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said China’s growing military presence from the Baltics to Africa meant nuclear-armed NATO had to be prepared. The coronavirus sweeping the globe bears a “signature” that’s never been seen in this virus class before and came “completely pre-adapted to humans,” according to Atossa Therapeutics CEO Dr Steven Quay. Dr Quay’s remarks came after he asked what it was about the coronavirus that makes him think it may have been the result of experimentation. “There is a signature in the virus that’s not present in any other virus that SARS-COV-2 could have come from in terms of recombination,” he told Sky News Australia. “So it’s something that’s never been seen in this virus class before.” The Wuhan Institute of Virology kept live bats in cages, new footage from inside the facility has revealed, disproving denials from World Health Organisation investigators who claimed the suggestion was a “conspiracy”. A member of the World Health Organisation team investigating the origin of the pandemic in Wuhan, zoologist Peter Daszak said it was a conspiracy to suggest bats were held at the Wuhan Institute of Virology. The Chinese Academy of Sciences video was discovered by researchers investigating the origin of the pandemic who call themselves DRASTIC. Framatome took the highly unusual step of warning the U.S. government about an “imminent radiological threat” from the plant, located in Guangdong province near Hong Kong. Framatome and its parent company EDF said on Monday that according to available data, “the plant is operating within safety parameters,” but a troubling “increase in the concentration of certain noble gases” was detected in the primary circuit of the cooling system at one of the plant’s two nuclear reactors. The French energy giant, which owns 30 percent of the Taishan plant, said it has called an “extraordinary meeting” with its Chinese partners to review data from the reactor. Israel’s 36th Government sworn-in;PM Naftali Bennett pledges continuity vs Iran-TV7 IsraelNews 14.06 1) Israel has a new sworn-in’ government – the 36th in Number since the establishment of the Jewish State. 2) Israeli Opposition Leader Benjamin Netanyahu pledges to replace the new Israeli government sooner than expected. 3) Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett gives thanks to the Lord God for the new government and asks for divine guidance. Growing tensions between Britain and the European Union threatened to overshadow the Group of Seven summit’s conclusion on Sunday, with London accusing France of “offensive” remarks that Northern Ireland was not part of the United Kingdom. Flora Bradley-Watson reports. Putin made the comments in an interview aired in excerpts on state television on June 13 ahead of a June 16 summit with U.S. President Joe Biden in Geneva. Ties between the powers are badly strained over an array of issues. That issue is in the spotlight after a cybercriminal group that U.S. authorities said operates from Russia penetrated a pipeline operator on the U.S. East Coast, locking its systems and demanding a ransom. The hack last month caused a shutdown lasting several days and led to a spike in gas prices, panic buying, and localized fuel shortages in the southeast. Fox News contributor Joe Concha discusses Nancy Pelosi downplaying Ilhan Omar controversy and an NPR writer’s criticism of actor Tom Hanks. Dave Rubin of The Rubin Report talks to track athlete Chelsea Mitchell and her lawyer Kristen Waggoner from the Alliance Defending Freedom about transgender athletes in girls sports, the editing of her op-ed piece in USA Today to remove the phrase “biological males”, and her lawsuit against Connecticut and the Connecticut Association of Schools regarding transgender women competing in girls sports. In this clip Chelsea shares her first hand experience of being one the fastest girls in her state, but constantly losing to transgender girls. She explains how this has cost her numerous state championships and medals. They discuss the reason for the separation of boys and girls sports and the unfair advantage that trans women in sports have over females. They also discuss the unprecedented censoring of Chelsea’s op-ed in USA Today, after trans activists objected to her using the phrase “biological males”. Americans spend a fortune on healthcare, but it doesn’t seem to be making us any healthier. In fact, all the trend lines point to an increasingly obese, overmedicated, comorbid population. Why is this happening, and what can we do to reverse it? Johns Hopkins Medical School professor Dr. Marty Makary prescribes a remedy. Much of Europe and North America has become dependent on China for critical products, from rare earths to pharmaceuticals. Europe’s “green transition” is intimately linked to human rights atrocities in China, says human rights advocate Laura Harth. How could the Chinese regime exploit these strategic dependencies? And if the lab leak theory turns out to be true, what will that mean for Beijing? In this episode, we discuss how the Chinese regime has strangled freedom in Hong Kong, expanded its encroachments and censorship globally, and is working to rewrite the international corpus on human rights. Laura Harth is the Campaign Director for Safeguard Defenders and the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China’s regional liaison for Italy.

President Joe Biden is set to deliver his first State of the Union in a few days, on Feb. 23 — though that date has yet to be confirmed, The Associated Press reported. But if he does deliver, if all goes according to plan, it’s a speech that could be summed in a simple phrase: Hello, United Nations. Goodbye, America First. The nation, under Biden, is rapidly swerving toward globalism. Globalism and diplomacy at all costs on foreign affairs. “Pompeo, other critics pan Biden WH effort to restart Iran nuclear talks,” Fox News wrote in a recent headline. “The Ayatollah understands only strength. I led a response to the Iranian threat that protected the American people from its terror and supported the Jewish state of Israel,” Pompeo said, in an interview with the Washington Free Beacon. “Adopting the European Union model of accommodation … will guarantee Iran a path to a nuclear arsenal.” But that seems the plan of action for this administration. All globalism, all the time; all diplomacy, all the time. It’s not just the Iran treaty that’s back on the table. America, thanks to Biden, has rejoined the Paris climate agreement, pretty much setting the stage for taxpayers to see huge surges in energy costs in coming years. He’s also promised to restore much of the funding for U.N. agencies that Donald Trump’s White House pulled. And he’s reached out to the World Health Organization to soothe ruffled feathers and assure U.S. cooperation once again with all that behemoth has to say about the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. “As I said in my inaugural address,” Biden said, in a recent speech about “America’s place in the world” delivered at U.S. State Department headquarters, “we will repair our alliances and engage with the world once again, not to meet yesterday’s challenges, but today’s and tomorrow’s. … [W]e must start with diplomacy rooted in America’s most cherished democratic values.” Diplomacy to Democrats? Never-ending talk. Always concessionary actions. “We can’t do it alone,” Biden said. “We will work with our partners,” Biden said. “[I am] reforming the habits of cooperation,” Biden said. What a day for the globalists; what a time of cheer for the big government types. “The transatlantic alliance is back,” said one Biden official, speaking on condition of anonymity to ABC News, about Biden’s Friday speech to the Group of Seven. That’s a thinly veiled reference to the times of Barack Obama versus the times of Donald Trump. The apology tours can’t be far behind. • Cheryl Chumley can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter, @ckchumley. Listen to her podcast “Bold and Blunt” by clicking HERE. And never miss her column; subscribe to her newsletter by clicking HERE. Her latest book, “Socialists Don’t Sleep: Christians Must Rise Or America Will Fall,” is available by clicking HERE.

From: David L. Moore ([email protected]) Date: Mon Aug 11 1997 - 22:34:47 EDT Rolf Furuli wrote: >Thank you for your comments addressing all my points. >My interest for the subject arose when I wrote a thesis about it as a part >of an intermediate exam in Hebrew. Since then I have followed the >discussion. What I saw then and still see, is that many of those discussing >the subject use the same presuppositions as was done in the first part of >the century when the strongest argument against the Christian use of the >teragrammaton was that it was not found inthe LXX. When I call for "hard >evidence" I call for a reevaluation of the situation because there simply >is no compelling evidence showing that Jesus and his followers ( and all >other groups) did not use T. ><Regarding Josephus' and Philo's writing in the latter ><part of the century, Philo is thought to have been born between 15 and 10 ><B.C. and Josephus 37/38 AD. So the former lived through the period we are ><dealing with, and the latter, if not an eye witness to all 1st-century ><events, was, at least, fairly well informed about them. >Agree. I for one also believe that many, perhaps most in Palestine in the >time of Jesus did not pronounce T, but where is the evidence that Jesus >did not, and that those writing the NT did not? >>>David, what do you think of the fact that the name occurs in all LXX >>>fragments until the middle of the first century CE even as a phonetic >>That doesn't seem odd, since there never was - as far as I know - >>any proscription against *writing* the divine name. I would suppose that >>the scribes doing the Greek transcription, if they were Jewish scribes, >>probably stopped and cleaned their pens whenever they wrote the name - or is >>that just a practice that came up later. It's hard to be sure, isn't it. >I think that most scholars would say that the phonetic transcription IAW >should be construed as indicating pronunciation if evidence for the >opposite is not produced. From the 3rd.2nd.and 1st centuries BC there is >evidence from Qumran (c 200-BC) and from the Job Targum (c 100 BC) for >non-pronunciation (the case with Simon the Just is ambiguous) but this does >not show any general tendency. Even in Qumran there are 110 occurrences of >T in thirty (imported?) manuscripts indicating different viewpoints. >David, three questions to you: >(1) Do you deny that the phonetic transcription IAW means pronunciation? I don't think it *necessarily* means it was commonly pronounced by >(2) Do you accept that the lack of pronunciation of T among Jewish groups >was due to superstition based on Greek and other foreign influence, and >that this was contrary to the OT? I think a plausible case could be made that considerations concerning foreigners and foreign thought might be *one* of the factors in withdrawal from the pronunciation of the tetragrammaton. Although it appears that the tetragrammaton was pronounced thoughout the time that the documents of the OT were originally penned, I wouldn't go as far as to say that its non-pronunciation is *contrary* to the OT. My opinion is that the name began not to be pronounced mainly because of concern for taking it in vain. >(3) Why should Jesus who was against teachings of men accept a custom >contrary to the Holy Scriptures which he called truth? Or had Jesus other >reasons for not using T? I think this question has to do with religious presuppositions which you hold and which I will not try to address on this forum. A question I have which may move this discussion back more squarely into the realm of New Testament studies has to do with the many circumlocutions for the mention of God in the NT documents. Doesn't it seem significant that these circumlocutions are most prominent in those documents that are most Jewish in emphasis or in nature? David L. Moore Miami, Florida, USA Southeastern Spanish District of the A/G Dept. of Education Home Page: http://members.aol.com/dvdmoore This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.4 : Sat Apr 20 2002 - 15:38:25 EDT

Secrets of the Kabalistic Cross In my previous blog post I described why the Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram remains a valuable rite. In this post I’m going to begin looking into the first section of the ritual, known as the Kabalistic Cross. According to Regardie’s The Golden Dawn, the book responsible for originally revealing the LBRP to most people, here are the complete instructions for performing this part of the ritual: - Take a steel dagger in the right hand. - Face East. - Touch thy forehead and say ATEH (thou art) - Touch thy breast and say MALKUTH (the Kingdom) - Touch thy right shoulder and say VE-GEBURAH (and the Power) - Touch thy left should and say VE-GEDULAH (and the Glory) - Clasp thy hands before thee and say LE-OLAM (for ever) - Dagger between fingers, point up and say AMEN And that’s it. It doesn’t seem like there’s much there. In fact, it doesn’t make a lot of sense. How can I say this is an important ritual when all you’re doing is touching yourself with a dagger? And if you’re holding a dagger, what do you do with it when you clasp your hands? And then, how do you put it between your fingers? And how is reciting the last verse of the Lords Prayer in Hebrew while doing a version of the Roman Catholic crossing of oneself (and that’s odd considering the original Golden Dawn manuscripts said not to allow Catholics into the GD, but “with pity”) going to accomplish anything magickal? As I wrote in the previous post of this series, “The full details [of this ritual] were expected to be given [to you] by your mentor in the Order.” I don’t claim to be such a mentor in any GD group, but I believe I can share with you the concepts that help make this section important. This final passage of the Lord’s Prayer first appears in the Gospel of Matthew in the Christian Bible. Modern versions of the Bible have this passage in parentheses. That’s because this passage is not found in the oldest copies of this book. It was added. So why is it there? Is it possible that some mystic—perhaps an early Kabalist—knew that by adding this to the prayer it changed the very tenor of the devotional from hope to a magickal act? On the mundane level, there is a very important meaning to these words. The “thou” described in the English translation refers to the Divine—to God. To most people, even 125 years ago, there was the mundane, physical world, and “the house of God”: churches, synagogues, cathedrals, mosques, etc. In this ritual you identify the physical world everywhere, including right where you stand, as being part of the Divine. Since you can’t see, feel, touch, etc. this other “world,” it’s evident that there is something non-physical—a spiritual or astral world or “plane”—that intersects with our physical plane. Wherever you are can become spiritual because its nature is spiritual. You don’t need to go anywhere. You just have to recognize it. Therefore, one of the purposes of this passage on the mundane level is to open you to the greater reality—there is more than the physical world. But what is this greater universe that belongs to the Divine, is non-physical, and is spiritual? How can we learn about it? For most, it is just an amorphous concept. But, if you were a traditional Kabalist (or a member of the Golden Dawn), you knew there was a map of the spiritual plane. It’s called the Tree of Life and has had many forms over the centuries. The current most popular version looks like this: If you can read Hebrew, you’ll see that the circle at the bottom reads “Malkuth” (pronounced mahl-koot) just like the second word of the ritual. The word in the circle in the center on the left is “Geburah,” the same as the third word in the rite (the “ve” means “and” or “and the”). An alternate for the word in the circle in the center on the right is “Gedulah.” So what we’re doing is pointing out that the greater spiritual universe is not only without, it’s also within. If you’re paying attention, you’ll notice that the ritual seems to put these on the opposite sides of the body when compared to their positions on the Tree of Life. However, imagine you are backing into the image of the Tree of Life. You aren’t merely observing it (in psychology this would be called a “dissociated” experience). Rather, it is literally part of you (an “associated” experience). So on an inner, spiritual level, you are literally uniting yourself with both the physical, mundane world, and the spiritual, non-physical, world. Wow! This ritual is starting to look more and more important! And to that I say… We say “Amen” after most prayers. Look it up in most books and you’ll see that it’s supposed meaning is “So be it.” Spiritually and Kabalistically, however, the meaning goes far deeper. As with many old magickal folk traditions, as well as traditions that evolved from folk magick, the Kabalah uses word and number codes to keep spiritual information out of the hands of the mundanes. One such Kabalistic system is that of using acronyms, creating new, magickal words from the first letters of a phrase of words. As a non-magickal example, the word NASA is an acronym for National Aeronautics and Space Administration. “Amen” is such an acronym (in the Kabalah it’s called a Notarikon), too. There is a traditional Jewish prayer that is quite old. Today it is performed as a call and response with the Rabbi making a statement followed by the congregation giving a repetetive phrase. That phrase is Al Melech Ne’ehman It means, “God [Al—pronounced "Ehl"] is a faithful [ne'ehman] king [melech].” The Notarikon for this phrase is AMeN (generally pronounced “ahh-mehn,” although different dialects and tradition have differences including “ahh-main” or “oi-main”). Therefore, when you say “Amen,” you’re saying that “God is a faithful king.” But faithful to what? The concept goes to a third level of meaning for the word, beyond mundane or spiritual and all the way to magickal. It means that there are certain spiritual laws in the universe, and if you do something to follow those rules, even though God is free to do whatever God wants, God is agreeable to following the second part of the bargain: If you do X, God will do Y, not because God has to do this, but because God has given hir word to do so. Thus, if you perform this ritual, you will blend your magickal abilities with the authority and power of the Divine for the purpose of banishing your area and making it sacred. In this section we’ve seen the outer, inner, and magickal meanings of the words of the first part of the LBRP known as the Kabalistic Cross. Its key points consist of understanding there are physical and non-physical or spiritual planes, and this ritual teaches you how to work with them, blending yourself and your energies with the spiritual, linking with the Divine and the energy of the Divine, and working with all worlds to make the area, right where you are, a sacred place. In the next installment I’ll be going into how to sound the words, do the visualizations, and perform the physical actions to make this ritual highly effective.

As most people know, Anne Frank was a young Jewish girl living in Nazi occupied Amsterdam, Holland. Anne's family were feeling the worst of the Nazi takeover and needed somewhere to stay. They were luckily given a secret annex in a work office behind the back of a bookcase where they stayed for two years. This itself, I find simply amazing. Staying inside for two years, how on earth did they manage to stay there, unnoticed? Think of all the arguments they must have had and not been allowed to shout at each other and resolve it all through simple discussions. Her family must have been very close, especially Anne and her sister Margot. I could never go two years without nearly killing her. Its hard to make jokes on such a serious matter but I bet they were like: Well, its killed by Hitler or Anne/Margot. During their stay there another family came to join them; The Van Daan's. Later on in their stay, there was romance between Anne and Peter Van Daan. I found this very upsetting because they should have been together forever but they weren't. I remember this especially well when the BBC made a series on the accounts in Anne Frank's diary. Everyone who watched this remembers Anne and Peter's kiss in the attic; it nearly made me cry. At the time of watching this I was so sad but it kind of changed my life... Not that this needs to be included in a book review but this is very important to me. At my school at the time it was only me and this other boy that really watched it. He always said "Oh did you watch it last night?" and it was kind of embarrassing. Then one day he's like "Did you see them kiss, Anne and Peter?!?!?!" and I obviously said, "Yes, it was very sad." And then the most shocking ever thing happened, "Yeah and it was like this..." and he just comes up and kisses me. It was so strange! But that was two years ago and we are still together now! It was lovely! Okay back to the book, I really loved the honesty of Anne but at sometimes I think she was a little too honest. She talks about her body going through puberty and that she didn't really know what was happening. She talks about showing things to her sister and before hiding her and her friends comparing their breasts. It was very weird. Earlier on this year, I was very sad to hear that Meip Gies who helped the Franks and Van Daan's when in hiding died at the age of 100. I was utterly distraught. Read more: http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/breaking-news/world/anne-frank-heroine-dies-aged-100-14631929.html The reason I feel so attached to Anne is because if it were 70 years later; that could have been me. I am a Jewish girl from Amsterdam though I don't live there any more I still feel strangely attached to the place. Its a sad thought. I know this really wasn't much of a review but thanks for reading. I hope Anne is resting happily in Eden (heaven). God Bless. | Email this Book review | Add to reading list

The 89-year-old mother of Alan Gross, the Maryland man who is serving 15 years in a Cuban prison after taking cellphones, laptop computers and satellite equipment into the communist nation, released a video statement Thursday appealing to President Raúl Castro for his release. "I'm going to be 90 in April, and that means maybe I have time, maybe I don't," Evelyn Gross says. "But I have lung cancer in both lungs, and it stands to reason I'm not going to be here for any length of time, so I want to see my son; I want to see him to come home so he can be with us." Alan Gross, who grew up in the Baltimore area and lived in Potomac, was trying to help Cuba's small Jewish community set up an intranet and gain better access to the Internet as a subcontractor to the U.S. Agency for International Development. Saturday marks the second anniversary of his arrest, during his fifth visit to the Caribbean island nation. Evelyn Gross appealed to Castro as a fellow parent. "If you had a child that was away in a foreign country and not being able to be with you for this length of time, I'm sure you wouldn't be happy about that either," she said. Also Thursday, Rep. Chris Van Hollen and Sen. Benjamin L. Cardin sent bipartisan letters to Cuba's top diplomat in Washington calling for his release. Van Hollen's letter was co-signed by 72 House members, including fellow Marylanders Elijah E. Cummings Steny H. Hoyer, C.A. Dutch Ruppersberger and John Sarbanes. Cardin's was co-signed by 18 senators, including Barbara A. Mikulski. In a separate letter, eight House members urged Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to demand Gross's release. "Mr. Gross's continued incarceration is viewed by all Members of Congress, regardless of their political views on Cuba, as a major setback in bilateral relations," read the letters to Jorge Bolanos, chief of mission at the Cuban Interests Section. "It is unlikely that any further positive steps can or will be taken by the Obama Administration or this Congress as long as Mr. Gross remains in a Cuban jail." Gross's family is working to raise the profile of his case to put pressure on U.S. and Cuban officials to resolve it. His wife, Judy, appeared at a vigil outside the Cuban Interests Section in Washington on Monday. "We really are pushing for people to know him," Judy Gross said this week. "For his case to be known, and for people in the country to know that he's sitting in that jail languishing away."

The Jewish community's emergency medical response group, Hatzolah, has revealed young children have attempted suicide as a result of being sexually abused. The acknowledgement of child sexual abuse as an ''ongoing crisis facing our community'' in a letter written by a senior Hatzolah official on Tuesday comes amid revelations of a police investigation into alleged criminal offences at Sydney's Yeshiva Centre in the 1970s and '80s. In a letter endorsing the establishment of Jewish sexual abuse support group Tzedek, Hatzolah's Melbourne operations manager, Danny Elbaum, wrote of his observations ''first hand of the devastating impact of child sexual abuse''. ''On many occasions our emergency responders have been called to assist Jewish patients (including young ones) who have self-harmed or attempted suicide, and upon further inquiry it has become clear the underlying cause for these desperate acts has been due to the patient's experience of child sexual abuse.'' Mr Elbaum's letter is one of the first times a Jewish community leader has linked child sexual abuse to suicide attempts. Prime Minister Julia Gillard last year announced a royal commission to investigate child sexual abuse and how religious organisations handled such incidents. New South Wales police are investigating allegations against two men formerly associated with the Yeshiva Centre and school in Bondi. The NSW police probe was triggered by an earlier inquiry by Victorian detectives into the Yeshivah College in St Kilda, which resulted in two former employees being charged with multiple child sex offences and claims senior rabbis tried to cover-up the scandal. Fairfax Media reported on Wednesday that one of the accused men associated with Bondi's Yeshiva Centre had told a victim in a recent conversation that he had spoken with the centre's spiritual leader, Rabbi Pinchus Feldman, about incidents involving younger boys. The accused man's conversation with Rabbi Feldman allegedly occurred in the mid-to-late 1980s. In a statement released on Wednesday, Rabbi Feldman said he did not recall any confession of child sex abuse crimes by the accused man. ''To make my position absolutely clear, I endorse the unequivocal rabbinical rulings encouraging victims of abuse to report to the police and I will continue to support the efforts of law enforcement agencies in investigating and taking action against these heinous crimes,'' Rabbi Feldman said. The leadership of Bondi's Yeshiva Centre said they immediately contacted NSW police last week to offer their assistance after it was revealed detectives were investigating historic child sexual abuse claims involving former members of their community. Fairfax Media has also learnt that a former Catholic priest last year charged with multiple child sex offences in NSW and Victoria, James Patrick Jennings, worked at the Bondi Yeshiva Centre during the 1980s.

|Photo by Tama Leaver| I'm just on a rant, so feel free to skip reading this post! What kid in the US today, regardless of whether they are Christian, Rastafarian, Hindu, Buddhist, Pagan, Wiccan, Shinto, Zoroastrian, Islamic, Jewish or another religion, doesn't equate Easter with Cadbury Eggs and Reese's Peanut Butter Eggs? The kids are really lucky if Mom actually made some hard-boiled eggs and |Photo by Jamiesrabbits| It's similar for the Christmas holiday, where the emphasis is on gift-giving... or New Year's Celebration with champagne, and Thanksgiving with the emphasis on Butterball turkeys rather than being Thankful. I'm not familiar with traditional holidays in religions around the world, but I'd be surprised if there isn't advertising (or at least being planned by BigAdvertising) influencing folks on where to spend their grocery money...

, a mediaeval Islamic town on the left bank of the Middle Euphrates, at the junction of its tributary the Nahr al-Balīk̲h̲. Today it is the administrative centre of the al–Raḳḳa governorate of the Arab Republic of Syria; in mediaeval Islamic historic topography it was considered to be the capital of Diyār Muḍar [q.v.] in al-D̲j̲azīra/Northern Mesopotamia. The origin of settlement on opposite sides of the Nahr al-Balīk̲h̲ is attested by the Tall Zaydān and the Tall al-Bīʿa, the latter identified with the Babylonian city of Tuṭṭūl (excavated since 1980; reports published in MDOG, cxiii and later). To the south of the Tall al-Bīʿa, on the border of the Euphrates, Seleucus I Nikator (301-281 B. C.) founded the Hellenistic city of Nikephorion, later probably enlarged by Seleucos II Kallinikos (246-226 B. C.) and named Kallinikos/Callinicum after him. Destroyed in A. D. 542 by the Sāsānid K̲h̲usraw I Anūs̲h̲irwān [q.v.], the emperor Justinian (527-65) soon after rebuilt the town in the course of an extensive fortification programme at the Byzantine border alongside the Euphrates (on the pre-Islamic city, see the article by M. al-K̲h̲alaf and K. Kohlmeyer in Damaszener Mitteilungen , ii , 133-62). The classical city was conquered in 18/639 or 19/640 by the Muslim army under ʿIyāḍ b. G̲h̲anm, who became the first governor of the D̲j̲azīra (in this connection, see W. E. Kaegi, Byzantium and the early Islamic conquests, Cambridge 1992). Renamed al–Raḳḳa, the Muslim faith was heralded by a congregational mosque, founded by the succeeding governor Saʿīd b. ʿĀmir b. Ḥid̲h̲yam, which was subsequently enlarged to monumental dimensions of c. 73 × 108 m. Recorded by the German scholar Ernst Herzfeld in 1907, the mosque, together with the square brick minaret (Pl. XXVI, 1), supposedly a later addition from the mid-4th/10th century, has since vanished completely. In 36/656 ʿAlī crossed the Euphrates at al–Raḳḳa on his way to Ṣiffīn [q.v.], the place of the battle with Muʿāwiya b. Abī Sufyān, the governor of Damascus and founder of the Umayyad dynasty. Located near the village of Abū Hurayra opposite the mediaeval citadel of Ḳalʿat D̲j̲aʿbar [q.v.] ca. 45 km/28 miles west of al–Raḳḳa, the burials of ʿAlī’s followers remained venerated places of S̲h̲īʿī pilgrimage (listed extensively in al-Harawī’s Kitāb al-Ziyārāt ). The last of those tombs located in the Muslim cemetery on the western fringes of the early Islamic city of al–Raḳḳa, the mausoleum of Uways al-Ḳaranī, recently had to give way to a huge pilgrimage centre. Another witness from the early days of Islam, a stone column supposedly depicting an autograph of ʿAlī from the Mas̲h̲had quarter of al–Raḳḳa, was already in the 6th/12th century transferred to Aleppo, where it was incorporated in the Masd̲j̲id G̲h̲awt̲h̲ (E. Herzfeld, CIA, part ii, Northern Syria, Inscriptions et monuments d’Alep , i, Cairo 1955-6, 271-2 no. 142). Throughout the Umayyad period al–Raḳḳa remained an important fortified stronghold protected by a garrison, occasionally involved in revolts and internal fighting over supremacy in the D̲j̲azīra, as described by al-Ṭabarī. Opposite al–Raḳḳa, near the ¶ south bank of the Euphrates, the Umayyad caliph His̲h̲ām b. ʿAbd al-Malik (105-25/724-43), residing mainly at al-Ruṣāfa [q.v.] ca. 50 km/31 miles further to the southwest in the Syrian desert, created the agricultural estate of Wāsiṭ al–Raḳḳa, irrigated by two canals named al-Hanī wa ’l-Marī . Further north, at a distance of ca. 72 km/45 miles, near the river al-Balīk̲h̲, another member of the Umayyad family, the famous military commander Maslama b. ʿAbd al-Malik (d. ca. 121/739 [q.v.]), a half-brother of the caliph His̲h̲ām, founded the residential estate of Ḥiṣn Maslama, which served as an advanced outpost towards the Byzantine frontier (on the ruins of Madīnat al-Fār, probably to be identified with Ḥiṣn Maslama, see the report by C.-P. Haase in Bilād al-Shām during the Abbasid period. Proceedings of the fifth International conference on the History of Bilād al-Shām , ed. Muḥammad ʿAdnān al-Bak̲h̲īt and R. Schick, Amman 1991, 206-13). Though the treaty between the inhabitants of al–Raḳḳa and the victorious Muslim general ʿIyāḍ b. G̲h̲anm, as quoted by al-Balād̲h̲urī, 173-4, stipulated that the Christians should retain their places of worship but were not allowed to build new churches, the non-Muslim community is recorded to have thrived well into the Middle Ages. Till the 6th/12th century a bishop is attested to have resided there, and at least four monasteries are frequently mentioned in the sources, the most famous of which, the Dayr Zakkā, can be identified with recently excavated ruins on the Tall al-Bīʿa (on the Christian sources and the newly-detected remains, see M. Krebernik, in MDOG, cxxiii , 41-57). To this monastery belonged the estate of al-Ṣāliḥiyya, a favourite halting place for hunting expeditions (described by al-Bakrī, iii, 582, and Yāḳūt, ii, 644-5), possibly to be associated with the ruins of al-Ṣuwayla near the river al-Balīk̲h̲, ca. 4 km/2.5 miles to the northeast of al–Raḳḳa (recently investigated archaeologically and recorded in Damaszener Mitteilungen, ii , 98-9). There also existed a large Jewish community maintaining an ancient synagogue, still operating during the visit of Benjamin of Tudela in about 1167 (see his Travels , tr. M. N. Adler, London 1907, 32). The early ʿAbbāsid period. Early in the ʿAbbāsid period the programme of border fortifications in all of the Muslim empire resulted in the construction of an entire new city about 200 m/660 feet west of al–Raḳḳa. Named al-Rāfiḳa, “the companion (of al–Raḳḳa)”, the city, according to al-Yaʿḳūbī (Taʾrīk̲h̲ , i, 238) was already conceived in the time of the first ʿAbbāsid caliph al-Ṣaffāḥ (132-6/749-54); nevertheless, al-Ṭabarī attributes the foundation of al-Rāfiḳa to his brother and successor al-Manṣūr (136-58/754-75), who in 154/770-1 decided on the construction of the city, which was eventually implemented by his son and heir-apparent al-Mahdī from 155/771-2 onwards. Construction work was still continuing when, in 158/775, al-Mahdī was summoned to Bag̲h̲dād to be invested as caliph upon the sudden death of his father. Purposely modelled after the only recently completed residential city of Bag̲h̲dād, the partly surviving city fortifications testify to the military might of the ʿAbbāsid empire. In the form of a parallelogram surmounted by a half circle with a width of ca. 1300 m/4,265 feet, the city was protected by a massive wall of almost 5000 m/16,400 feet in length (Pl. XXV, 1). Fortified by 132 round projecting towers, an advance wall and a moat further improved the defence system (see Murhaf al-Khalaf, in Damaszener Mitteilungen, ii , 123-31). Originally accessible by three axial entrances, the recently excavated ¶northern gate (Pl. XXV, 2) has revealed stately dimensions, with a portal opening of four metres/13 feet. Remains of iron door posts attest the existence of massive or metal-plated doors, which attracted special praise in the Arabic chronicles. One of the doors, according to the mediaeval tradition, is identified with spoils from the Byzantine city of Amorion or ʿAmmūriya [q.v.] in Asia Minor, transported by al-Muʿtaṣim (218-27/833-42) in 223/838 to his newlyfounded residence at Sāmarrāʾ in central Mesopotamia, from where it supposedly reached al–Raḳḳa towards the end of the 3rd/9th century. Only about half-a-century later, the door was again dismantled in 353/964 on behalf of the Ḥamdānid Sayf al-Dawla ʿAlī (333-56/945-67), to be later incorporated in the Bāb al-Ḳinnasrīn at Aleppo (E. Herzfeld, CIA, part ii, Northern Syria,Inscriptions et monuments d’Alep , i, 60). In the centre of al-Rāfīḳa another Great Mosque was constructed with monumental proportions of 108 × 93 m/354 × 305 feet in order to serve the garrison of soldiers from K̲h̲urāsān (Pl. XXVI, 3). Built with massive mud brick walls, strengthened by burnt brick facing and encircled by a chain of round towers, the plan layout is characterised by triple aisles on brick piers in the prayer hall and by double arcades on the three other sides of the interior courtyard (see Creswell, Early Muslim architecture , ii, Oxford 1940, 45-8, and recent project reports). This first pillar mosque in Islamic architecture obviously served as a model for later Friday mosques at Bag̲h̲dād (enlarged from 192/808 till 193/809 by Hārūn al-Ras̲h̲īd), Sāmarrāʾ (both mosques of al-Mutawakkil, inaugurated in 237/852 and 247/861 respectively) and at Cairo (Mosque of Aḥmad b. Ṭūlūn, completed in 265/879). Al–Raḳḳa as capital of the ʿAbbāsid empire. The new city al-Rāfiḳa alone almost matches the traditional Syrian capital Damascus in size; but the two sister cities of al–Raḳḳa and al-Rāfiḳa together formed the largest urban entity in Syria and northern Mesopotamia, probably only surpassed by the ʿAbbāsid centre of power, Bag̲h̲dād, in central Mesopotamia. Therefore, it was a logical choice that the caliph Hārūn al-Ras̲h̲īd (170-93/786-809), when searching for an alternative residence in 180/796, settled on al–Raḳḳa/al-Rāfiḳa, which remained his base for a dozen years till 192/808. This resulted not only in additions to the city fortification (inscription on the eastern gate of al-Rāfiḳa, the Bāb al-Sibāl, quoted by Ibn S̲h̲addād, iii/1, 71), but more importantly, in the construction of an extensive palatial quarter to the north of the twin cities. This caliphal residence of almost 10 km2, as attested by aerial photographs, includes about twenty large-size complexes, of which the most monumental of ca. 350 × 300 m/1,148 × 984 feet in a central position obviously served as the main residence of Hārūn al-Ras̲h̲īd (Pl. XXVII, 1), probably to be identified with the Ḳaṣr al-Salām mentioned by Yāḳūt. The other structures were evidently used for housing the family members and court officials residing with Hārūn al-Ras̲h̲īd at al–Raḳḳa, or else were devoted to service functions. The huge area of ruins outside the twin cities has since 1944 attracted archaeological investigations. First trial soundings were conducted by the Syrian Antiquities Service at the Main Palace, but were soon discontinued due to the poor state of preservation. Instead, another major complex of ca. 120 × 150 m/393 × 492 feet, only 400 m/1,312 feet north of the city wall of al-Rāfiḳa, named Palace A, was partly excavated. Excavations eventually continued at three other complexes to the east of the Main Palace: Palace ¶ B (1950-52), Palace C (1953), and Palace D (1954 and 1958), all of rather monumental dimensions measuring ca. 170 × 75 m/557 × 246 feet, 150 × 110 m/492 × 360 feet and 100 × 100 m/328 × 328 feet respectively; (see the series of reports by Nassib Saliby in Les Annales Archéologiques de Syrie , iv-v [1954-5], 205-12, Arabic part 69-76; vi , Arabic part 25-40). Additionally, further soundings in the vicinity of and at Palace A were implemented between 1966 and 1970 (summarised by Kassem Toueir in the excavation review by P. H. E. Voûte [ed.], in Anatolica , iv [1971-2], 122-3). Since the modern town development caused the overbuilding of most of the palace city, the German Archaeological Institute in Damascus has conducted ten seasons of rescue excavations from 1982 till 1992. At the eastern fringes of the site, four larger buildings bordering on a public square were investigated: the so-called Western Palace of ca. 110 × 90 m/360 × 295 feet divided into representative, living and infrastructural units; the North Complex of ca. 150 × 150 m/492 × 492 feet, probably the barracks of the imperial guards; the East Complex of ca. 75×50 m/246 × 164 feet, mostly of recreational functions; and the Eastern Palace of ca. 70 × 40 m/230 × 131 feet, reserved entirely for representative purposes. On the northeastern limits of the palace area, another large-size complex with an extension of ca. 300 × 400 m/984 × 1,312 feet was also partly excavated, revealing an elongated double courtyard structure encircled by round towers, which was obviously left unfinished (see the reports by J.-Chr. Heusch and M. Meinecke). All the investigated buildings depended on mud as the major construction material, either in the form of sun-dried bricks or of stamped mud, only occasionally strengthened by burnt bricks. The ground plans, on the other hand, are generally characterised by precisely calculated geometrical subdivisions, indicating the careful laying-out of the built fabric. The publicly visible parts, on the exterior as well as in the interior, received a coating of white plaster, masking and protecting the mud core of the walls. On the representative units the buildings were decorated by stucco friezes in deep relief (Pl. XXVII, 2-3), depicting mostly vine ornament in numerous variations (partly documented by Meinecke, in Rezeption in der islamischen Kunst , ed. B. Finster, forthcoming). Genetically, these patterns are only vaguely related to Umayyad predecessors; instead, the dependence on classical models indicates an intended revival of the ornamental corpus of the monuments from the 2nd and 3rd centuries A. D. at Palmyra (see Meinecke and A. Schmidt-Colinet, in the exhibition catalogue by E. M. Ruprechtsberger [ed.], Syrien . Von den Aposteln zu den Kalifen , Linz 1993, 352-9). Selections of excavation finds and decorative elements from the Raḳḳa palaces are exhibited at the Damascus National Museum and at the archaeological museum at al–Raḳḳa. Though the investigated complexes lack building inscriptions pointing to their original function or to the patron, their history can be clearly defined by the numismatic evidence. Among the coins collected during the recent excavations on the eastern border structures of the palace belt, examples minted at al-Rāfiḳa in the year 189/804-5 in the name of Hārūn al-Ras̲h̲īd are especially numerous, while only individual items minted at al-Rāfiḳa in the reigns of the succeeding sons al-Maʾmūn (208/823-4 and 210/825-6) and al-Muʿtaṣim (226/840-1) have been recorded (on the ʿAbbāsid mint at al-Rāfiḳa, see now L. Ilisch, in Numismatics-witness to history. IAPN publication, viii , 101-21). Consequently, those structures ¶ investigated recently must have been in use towards the end of Hārūn al-Ras̲h̲īd’s tenure of power at al–Raḳḳa. After the removal of the court back to Bag̲h̲dād on the death of Hārūn al-Ras̲h̲īd in 193/809, the palaces were obviously in use only briefly and occasionally. This extensive residential city was evidently founded in 180/796 by Hārūn al-Ras̲h̲īd and continuously further enlarged for over a decade. These buildings formed the backstage of the political events of this period, described in great detail by al-Ṭabarī and others. From there, the yearly raids ( ṣawāʾif , sing.ṣāʾifa [q.v.]) into the Byzantine empire and the frequent pilgrimages to the Holy Cities of Mecca and Medina were organised. In these palaces lived the family of the caliph, including his wife Zubayda and his heirs apparent, al-Amīn, al-Maʾmūn and al-Ḳāsim, and also al-Muʿtaṣim, for much of their youth (as described by N. Abbott, Two queens of Baghdad , Chicago 1946). Here was the military centre with the army command and the administrative centre of the vast ʿAbbāsid empire, where the treasuries and the material wealth of the caliph were safeguarded (al-Ṭabarī, iii, 654). Here the members of the Barmakid family managed the affairs of the state until they were executed or imprisoned in 187/803 [see al-barāmika ]. For his periodic centre of administration, Hārūn al-Ras̲h̲īd also improved the infrastructure decisively. For the irrigation of the palace city, two canals were laid out: one channelling the water of the Euphrates from about 15 km/9 miles further west, and another of over 100 km/62 miles collecting water from the Anatolian mountains to the north. According to Yāḳūt, one of these (probably the Euphrates canal) was named Nahr al-Nīl (described by Kassem Toueir, inTechniques et pratiques hydro-agricoles traditionelles en domaine irrigué. Actes du Colloque de Damas , ed. B. Geyer, Paris 1990, 217-20). About 8 km/5 miles to the west of the city, the Euphrates canal passes by another monument to be associated with Hārūn al-Ras̲h̲īd. Surrounded by a circular enclosure wall of 500 m/1,640 feet in diameter, with round buttresses and four portals on the cardinal points, the centre is occupied by a massive square building of ca. 100 m/328 feet for each side. Accessible on the ground level only are four vaulted stately halls on the main axis, from where ramps lead to the upper storey, which was not, however, completed. This curious stone structure, recently also investigated archaeologically, with the traditional name of Hiraḳla obviously alluding to the conquest of the Byzantine city of Heraclea by Hārūn al-Ras̲h̲īd in 190/806, can be interpreted as a victory monument. The stone material used seems to have originated from churches of the frontier region whose dismantling was ordered in 191/806-7 by the caliph (Ibn S̲h̲addād, iii/1, 342). Obviously, due to the departure of the imperial patron to K̲h̲urāsān in 192/808 and his death shortly thereafter, the building was left unfinished (see Toueir, in World Archaeology , xiv/3 , 296-303, and in La Syrie de Byzance à l’Islam , VII e -VIII e siècles ,Actes du Colloque International , ed. P. Canivet and J.-P. Rey-Coquais, Damascus 1992, 179-86). The extensive construction programme at al–Raḳḳa was accompanied by accelerated industrial activities; these are attested by a string of mounds with large piles of ashes outside the northern wall of the city of al–Raḳḳa/Nikephorion. Recently investigated archaeologically at two points, workshops for pottery and glass production have been detected, for which the numismatic evidence points to their use in the time of Hārūn al-Ras̲h̲īd. The expertly-potted ¶ ceramics with incised or moulded decoration, as well as the fragile glass vessels featuring incised, relief or lustre decoration, which are known from the inventories of the excavated palaces, were thus evidently for the most part fabricated locally. The later ʿAbbāsid period. Shortly after the sudden death of Hārūn al-Ras̲h̲īd, his widow Zubayda in 193/809 organised the transfer of the vast state treasures to Bag̲h̲dād, where her son al-Amīn (193-8/809-13) was enthroned as ruler of the ʿAbbāsid empire (al-Ṭabarī, iii, 775). While this marks the reinstallation of Bag̲h̲dād as the administrative centre of the Muslim world, the city of al–Raḳḳa remained of regional importance as seat of the governor of the D̲j̲azīra province until the mid-4th/10th century. In opposition to al-Maʾmūn (198-218/813-33), who succeeded in capturing Bag̲h̲dād from his brother al-Amīn, a revolt caused the destruction by fire of the market quarter between the sister cities of al–Raḳḳa and al-Rāfiḳa in 198/813 (Michael Syrus, ed. J.-B. Chabot, iii, 26). To police the situation, al-Maʾmūn sent the general Ṭāhir b. al-Ḥusayn [q.v.] as governor of the D̲j̲azīra to al–Raḳḳa, followed by his son ʿAbd Allāh b. Ṭāhir [q.v.] until 210/825-6, when he was nominated governor of Egypt. In the time of the Ṭāhirids, the palace belt outside the city walls was already evidently falling into disrepair. Nevertheless, a last reactivation is attested for the time of al-Muʿtaṣim on the basis of fresco inscriptions with his name found at the Palace B to the east of Hārūn al-Ras̲h̲īd’s central residence (A. Grohmann, Arabische Paläographie , ii, Vienna 1971, pl. 18). This is to be connected with the last military campaign into the Byzantine empire conducted from al–Raḳḳa, which resulted in the conquest of the city of ʿAmmūriyya/Amorium in 223/838 (Ibn S̲h̲addād, ii/1, 341). From there, the caliph carried off the famous iron doors to his newly-founded capital of Sāmarrāʾ, to be set up at the main entrance, the Bāb al-ʿĀmma, of his residential palace, then under construction. Instead of utilising the palace city of Hārūn al-Ras̲h̲īd, new structures were built up on top of the suburb between the sister cities; soundings conducted by the Syrian Service of Antiquities (1953 and 1969) have revealed stucco decorations in the bevelled style of Sāmarrāʾ from the mid-3rd/9th century. About the same time also, the prayer-niche of the Great Mosque at al-Rāfiḳa received a new stucco decoration with similar features. A series of stone capitals, now scattered to many museum collections, featuring the characteristic slant cut and related ornamental patterns, bear witness to continuous building activities (M. S. Dimand, in Ars Islamica , iv , 308-24; Meinecke, in Bilād al-Shām during the Abbasid period, in Proceedings of the fifth International Conference on the History of Bilād al-Shām , 232-5). Though the size of the inhabited area became drastically diminished, the city of al–Raḳḳa remained the only real antipode to Bag̲h̲dād. Therefore, it was the obvious alternative for caliphs in exile or seeking refuge, as it was the case with al-Mustaʿīn in 251/865, al-Muʿtamid in 269/882, al-Muʿtaḍid in 286/899 and 287/900, and finally with al-Muttaḳī in 332-3/944, as recorded by al-Ṭabarī and other historians. But the fame of the city at that period did not result from political might or artistic achievements but from the scholars living and teaching at al–Raḳḳa, for instance the famous astronomer Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad al-Battānī (d. 317/929 [q.v.]), or Muḥammad b. Saʿīd al-Ḳus̲h̲ayrī (d. 334/945), the author of a Taʾrīk̲h̲ al–Raḳḳa , ed. Ṭāhir al-Naʿsānī, Ḥamā 1959. The first period of decline. The decline of the 1. City walls of al-Rāfiḳa (photo German Archaeological Institute Damascus: P. Grunwald 1985). 2. North Gate of al-Rāfiḳa (photo German Archaeological Institute Damascus: M. Meinecke 1984). 1. Great Mosque of al–Raḳḳa/Nikephorion, minaret (photo G. L. Bell 1909; courtesy Gertrude Bell Photographic Archive: Department of Archaeology, The University of Newcastle upon Tyne). 2. Great Mosque of al-Rāfiḳa, minaret (photo German Archaeological Institute Damascus: P. Grunwald 1984). 3. Great Mosque of al-Rāfiḳa, aerial view ca. 1930 (reproduced from M. Dunand, De l’Amanus au Sinai , 1953). 1. Palace City of Hārūn al-Ras̲h̲īd, main palace and neighbouring structures on the southeast, aerial view ca. 1930 (reproduced from M. Dunand, De l’Amanus au Sinai, 1953); for identification see map. 2. Western Palace, stucco frieze (photo German Archaeological Institute Damascus: P. Grunwald 1985). 3. Western Palace, stucco frieze (photo German Archaeological Institute Damascus: P. Grunwald 1985). 1. Bāb Bag̲h̲dād (photo German Archaeological Institute Damascus: K. Anger 1983). 2. Palace of Ḏj̲amāl al-Dīn Muḥammad al-Iṣfahānī/Ḳaṣr al-Banāt, domed corner room (photo German Archaeological Institute Damascus: K. Anger 1983). ¶central administration of the ʿAbbāsid caliphate affected also the city of al–Raḳḳa. Since the conquest by the Ḥamdānids in 330/942, the urban centre on the Euphrates was contested between the rulers of Mawṣil and Aleppo, as being the gate for supremacy in Northern Mesopotamia. The founder of the Aleppo branch of the Ḥamdānid dynasty, Sayf al-Dawla ʿAlī, (333-356/945-967) is blamed by Ibn Ḥawḳal and Ibn S̲h̲addād for the devastation of the D̲j̲azīra and the former capital al–Raḳḳa. Political instability caused, for instance, the destruction by fire of part of the city of al–Raḳḳa/Nikephorion in 332/944, resulting in a gradual depopulation of the initial urban settlement. The dismantling in 353/964 of the iron doors from an entrance gate to the city is another proof for a marked reduction of the population (on the history of this period in general, see M. Canard, Histoire de la dynastie des H’amdânides de Jazîra et de Syrie , i, Algiers-Paris 1951). This development is also mirrored by the Umayyad Great Mosque, which, according to the position of the minaret in the interior courtyard, only remained in use with part of the initial prayer hall. After the Ḥamdānids there followed a century of turmoil, when the governorship of al–Raḳḳa was fought over by the Arab tribal dynasties of the Numayrīds, the Mirdāsids and the ʿUḳaylids (described in great detail by Ibn S̲h̲addād, iii/1, 74-8). Nothing is attested as having been added to the urban fabric; on the contrary, the shrinking population retreated increasingly from the initial city al–Raḳḳa to the ʿAbbāsid foundation of al-Rāfiḳa, which according to Yāḳūt, followed by al-Dimas̲h̲ḳī, eventually also took over the name of the sister city. The revival of al–Raḳḳa in the Zangid and Ayyūbid periods. The fate of the city only changed with the appearance of the Zangids in the region (on the history of that period, see C. Alptekin, The reign of Zangi (521-541/1127-1146), Erzurum 1978). Conquered by ʿImād al-Dīn Zangī in 529/1135, al–Raḳḳa was soon to regain importance, as attested by building activities (listed partly by Ibn S̲h̲addād, iii/1, 71). When Zangī was murdered in 541/1146 whilst besieging Ḳalʿat D̲j̲aʿbar further up the Euphrates, he was first buried at Ṣiffīn, but soon afterwards his corpse was transferred to a domed mausoleum constructed for this purpose in the Mas̲h̲had quarter of al–Raḳḳa (Ibn al-ʿAdīm, ii, 285). Following the death of Zangī, his wazīr D̲j̲amāl al-Dīn Muḥammad al-Iṣfahānī organised from al–Raḳḳa the succession of Zangī’s son, Nūr al-Dīn Maḥmūd (N. Elisséeff, Nūr ad-Dīn , Damascus 1967, 390-2). In this connection a palace is mentioned, which may eventually be identified with the Ḳaṣr al-Banāt (Pl. XXVIII, 2), a ruined structure from that period (on the archaeological investigation since 1977, see Toueir, in Damaszener Mitteilungen , ii , 297-319). Ibn S̲h̲addād in addition also mentions a k̲h̲ānḳāh of the same patron, as well as another commissioned by Nūr al-Dīn Maḥmūd, together with a hospital ( bīmāristān ) and twomadrasa s, one for S̲h̲āfiʿīs and the other for Ḥanafīs, presumably all erected by or in the time of the same ruler. Most indicative for the reactivation of the city during this period is the ʿAbbāsid Great Mosque of al-Rāfiḳa, which already attracted minor construction and decoration activities in 541/1146-7 and 553/1158, as recorded on re-used inscription fragments (photographed by G. L. Bell in 1909) and on newly-discovered inscription panels (excavated in 1986, now on display at the Raḳḳa Museum). The surviving parts of the mosque, the façade or the ḳibla riwāḳ and the cylindrical minaret (Pl. XXVI, 1), are due to the reconstruction programme of Nūr al-Dīn Maḥmūd, completed in 561/1165-6. ¶ The reduced size of the reactivated mosque, limited to the former prayer hall, mirrors the comparatively modest population of the town, which only occupied the eastern half of the ʿAbbāsid city, where evidently most of the lost other religious buildings mentioned were also located. As the main entrance to the mediaeval city, there functioned the Bāb Bag̲h̲dād at the southeast corner of the ʿAbbāsid city walls, according to the brick decoration erected at this time (Pl. XXVIII, 1) (re-dated by J. Warren, in Art andArchaeology Research Papers , xiii , 22-3; and R. Hillenbrand, in The art of Syria and the Jazira 1100-1250, ed. J. Raby, Oxford 1985, 27-36). With the conquest by Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn in 578/1182, the city passed into the control of the Ayyūbids. As one of the chief towns of the principality of Diyār Muḍar, al–Raḳḳa was especially favoured by the Ayyūbid prince al-Malik al-ʿĀdil Abū Bakr, who took up residence at the city between 597/1201 and 625/1128. He is attested to have constructed palaces and bath complexes, and laid out many gardens with extensive plantations (Ibn S̲h̲addād, iii/1, 71-2). Of these Ayyūbid additions to the town, nothing has survived. But in this period, al–Raḳḳa emerged as a major production centre for glazed ceramics of high artistic perfection, which were exported widely. Most frequent among these are figural or vegetal designs in black under a transparent turquoise glaze, but other variations with lustre on turquoise and purple glazes, or coloured designs, including red, under a colourless glaze, are also recorded (see the detailed studies by E. J. Grube, in Kunst des Orients , iv , 42-78; V. Porter,Medieval Syrian pottery ( Raqqa ware ), Oxford 1981; and also the extensive bibliography by Cr. Tonghini and Grube, in Islamic Art , iii , 59-93). The pottery workshops were located in the immediate vicinity of the urban settlement, even partly within the ʿAbbāsid city walls to the south of the Great Mosque (on a kiln excavated in 1924 immediately outside the east wall of the city, see J. Sauvaget in Ars Islamica , xiii-xiv , 31-45). The Ayyūbids successfully repulsed occasional attacks on the city by the Sald̲j̲ūḳs of Asia Minor and the K̲h̲wārazmians, but finally had to yield to the Mongol forces, who invaded northern Mesopotamia in 657/1259 (on the history of that period, see R. S. Humphreys, From Saladin to the Mongols , Albany 1977). Urban settlement at Diyār Muḍar ceased in the early years of the Mamlūk era, when in 663/1265 all the fortified cities on the middle Euphrates were destroyed for tactical reasons, including al–Raḳḳa (L. Ilisch,Geschichte der Artuqidenherrschaft von Mardin zwischen Mamluken und Mongolen 1260-1410 AD, Münster 1984, 51-2). The Ottoman period. Throughout the Mamlūk period, al–Raḳḳa remained practically deserted, as certified by Abu ’l-Fidāʾ. Only after the Syrian campaign of the Ottoman sultan Selīm I (918-26/1512-20), which resulted in the downfall of the entire Mamlūk empire in 923/1517, was it reactivated as a military outpost. In the time of sultan Süleymān II Ḳānūnī (926-74/1520-66), al–Raḳḳa was the nominal capital of a province of the Ottoman empire, probably in memory of its past glory. A building inscription commemorating the restoration of a castle and a sacred building ( ḥaram ) by Sultan Süleymān b. Selīm K̲h̲ān remains the only testimony to this limited reactivation as a military and administrative centre (originally located at the Mausoleum of Uways al-Ḳaranī, now on display in the archaeological museum of the modern city). Due to destruction by Türkmen and Kurdish tribes, the governorship was transferred ¶ to the city of al-Ruhā/Urfa ca. 135 km/84 miles further north (according to Ewliyā Čelebi, Seyāḥat-nāme , tr. J. von Hammer, i/1, London 1834, 95, 101, 104, 110; tr. Danişman, v, Istanbul 1970, 41, 52-3). On the visit of Ewliyā Čelebi in winter 1059/1649, the place was deserted following recent raids, though the ruins of the glorious past and formerly-irrigated gardens still remained visible. The site was only repopulated in the late 19th century, when the Turkish government settled there a group of Circassians in order to police the region. Initially a village of only a few houses near the southwest corner of the ʿAbbāsid city, the population grew slowly but steadily, counting somewhat less than 5,000 inhabitants by the middle of the 20th century. Since then, due to the agricultural revival of the region, the settlement has reached a population of nearly 90,000 inhabitants in 1981 (Syrian … Central Bureau of Statistics (ed.), Statistical abstract, xxxvii, Damascus 1984). Now the capital of a province administered by a governor, and an active commercial and industrial centre, the city has reached a size larger than ever in its history, consequently submerging most of the historic fabric. This in turn has motivated an extensive programme of archaeological research and architectural conservation for the monuments from the Islamic past. (in addition to the references in the text): Arabic texts. For Yaʿḳūbī, Ibn al-Faḳīh, Muḳaddasī, Ibn Ḥawḳal, Yāḳūt, and other geographical works, see the convenient index by C. Corun, Atlas du monde arabo-islamique à l’époque classique, IX e -X e siècles, Leiden 1985, 21-2, s.v. Rāfiqa and Raqqa. In addition see Balād̲h̲urī, Futūḥ, 173-4, 178-80, 297 Ṭabarī (tr. in 39 vols, with annotation and index in progress) Bakrī, Muʿd̲j̲am mā istaʿd̲j̲am, ed. Muṣṭafā al-Saḳḳā, Cairo 1945-51 Harawī, K. al-Ziyārāt, ed. J. Sourdel-Thomine, Damascus 1953, 63 (tr. eadem, Damascus 1957, 141-2) Ibn al-ʿAdīm, Zubdat al-Ḥalab, ed. Sāmī al-Dahhān, 3 vols., Damascus 1951, 1954, 1968 Muḥammad Ibn S̲h̲addād, al-Aʿlāḳ al-k̲h̲aṭīra, ii/1, ed. A.-M. Eddé in B. Ét. Or., xxxii-xxxiii (1980-1) ed. Yaḥyā ʿAbbāra, 2 vols., Damascus 1878, 69-82 Dimas̲h̲ḳī, Nuk̲h̲bat al-dahr, ed. A. F. Mehren, St. Petersburg 1866 Abu ’l-Fidāʾ, Taḳwīm, 277. General works and publications on the monuments of al–Raḳḳa. E. Sachau, Reise in Syrien und Mesopotamien, Leipzig 1883, 241-6 G. Le Strange, Palestine under the Moslems, London 1890, 518 idem, Lands of the Eastern Caliphate, London 1905, 101-2 H. Violet, Description du Palais de al-Moutasim, fils d’Haroun-al-Raschid à Samara et de quelques monuments arabes peu connus de la Mésopotamie, in Mémoires présentés par divers savants à l’Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres, xii/2 (1909), 568-71 G. L. Bell, Amurath to Amurath, London 1911, 54-60 F. Sarre and E. Herzfeld, Archäologische Reise im Euphrat- und Tigris-Gebiet, i, Berlin 1911, 3-6 (M. van Berchem), 156-61 ii, Berlin 1920, 349-64 iv, Berlin 1920, 20-5 A. Musil, The Middle Euphrates, New York 1927, 91, 325-31 K. A. C. Creswell, Early Muslim Architecture, ii, Oxford 1940, 39-48, 165-6 M. Dunand, De l’Amanus au Sinai, Beirut 1953, 94-7 Creswell, A short account of early Muslim architecture, Harmondsworth 1958, 183-90 M. Abû-l-Faraj al-ʿUsh (ed.), Catalogue du Musée National de Damas, Damascus 1969, 166-76 Abdul-Kader Rihaoui, Aperçu sur la civilisation de al-Jazira et de la Vallée de l’Euphrate à l’époque arabe-musulmane, in Les Annales Archéologiques Arabes Syriennes, xix (1969), 84-7, Arabic part 56-9 M. Meinecke, Raqqa, in Land des Baal, ed. K. Kohlmeyer and E. Strommenger, Mainz 1982, 261-3, 274-84 H. G. Franz, Palast, Moschee und Wüstenschloβ. Das Werden der Islamischen Kunst, 7.-9. Jahrhundert, Graz 1984, 121-4, 126, 128 J.-C. Heusch und M. Meinecke, Grabungen im ʿabbāsidischen Palastareal von ar-Raqqa/ar-Rāfiqa 1982-1983, in Damaszener Mitteilungen, ii (1985), 85-105 idem, Die Residenz des Harun al-Raschid in Raqqa, Damascus 1989 Creswell, A short account of early Muslim architecture, revised and supplemented by J. W. Allen, Aldershot 1989, 243-8, 270-8 Meinecke, Raqqa on the Euphrates: recent excavations at the residence of Harun er-Rashid, in The Near East in Antiquity: German contributions to the archaeology of Jordan, Palestine, Syria, Lebanon and Egypt, ed. S. Kerner, ii, Amman 1991, 17-32. Cite this page Meinecke, M., “al-Raḳḳa”, in: Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition, Edited by: P. Bearman, Th. Bianquis, C.E. Bosworth, E. van Donzel, W.P. Heinrichs. Consulted online on 09 June 2017 <https://dx-doi-org.sargasses.biblio.msh-paris.fr/10.1163/1573-3912_islam_COM_0907>

Sunday's demonstration on the streets of New York City briefly shut down Wall Street and Water Street in Manhattan's Financial District, but it was a shadow of the massive waves of protests that crippled the holy city of Jerusalem just last weekend. The ultra-Orthodox in New York took to the streets in a show of solidarity for their brethren in Israel. The Israeli government has long exempted the super devout from their near-universal conscription, but in recent weeks have proposed changing that rule for at least some of the ultra-Orthodox. The ultra-Orthodox aim to live a life strictly dedicated to the study of the Torah and many see a government requirement that they serve in the military as a form of religious persecution. Police in Jerusalem said a staggering 300,000 protestors attended the event last Sunday. Organizers of the New York City sister protest put their own numbers at 50,000. As the largest Jewish community outside Israel, the New Yorkers have tight bonds with Orthodox Israelis, some of whom emigrated from the United States.

Daily Jewce: Poor Hasidic Towns, Pesach Warfare, Israeli Slasher Flicks, New Bible Testament Sucks, And More By Jewcy Staff / April 21, 2011 In the news today: the poorest place in the US is a mostly Jewish village, learning about war through the Passover story, Israeli horror film in New York, James Frey is back with a Bible book, and much more. Read More Jewcy loves trees! Please don't print! - The poorest place (on paper) in the United States isn’t Detroit, and it isn’t some ghost town in the West, it’s the mostly Hasidic New York village of Kiryas Joel. - The left and right clash in Israeli rally to support Palestinian state. - The story of Exodus can teach us a lot about warfare. Danger Room discusses how. - Israeli slasher film, Rabies, makes its Tribeca Film Fest debut. - James Frey writes the final testament of The Bible. The Guardian doesn’t like it.

Moa Wikberg - Female Dancer | Spain, Spain(no reviews) Based In: Spain, Spain Like what you see?Contact Me / Request a QuoteClick here to request a quote for your upcoming event! I am a professional dancer, originally from Sweden and I have also trained in France and Spain, which was where I did my Bachelor degree. I am specialized in jazz, commercial, hip hop, heels & contemporary dance. I have also studied acting and singing for several years. Moa Wikberg grew up in Stockholm, Sweden where she started dancing at the age of 12. She trained at Stockholm Dans Center for five years in different styles such as Hip-hop, Breaking, Jazz-Funk, Waacking and Commercial. In High school she studied dance as a part of the program as well as attending dance classes in the evenings. During her second year she move to Nantes in France to study art at Lycée Livet. There she joined a dance crew called L.A Style (loire atlantique) with which she started to battle with in different competitions around Nantes. She later joined the now much known crew M Back in Sweden Moa continued her studies in high school and got accepted to The Voice dance crew. Through them she became Sean Banans background dancer and toured around Sweden. During that same time Moa became assistant choreographer for ABZORB with fellow students. That show was seen by over 2000 people at different locations. At 20 years old Moa graduated high school and got a scholarship to the newly opened school, the Institute of the Arts Barcelona, in Spain. There she became one of the first students to attend. During her years in Spain she performed at various venues in both Sitges, Barcelona and Madrid. Moa got offered a scholarship to Peridance Capezio centre in New York after her first year and spent a break there. She danced in many school shows and got to work with world known choreographers. During Moa’s second year she spent one month in Los Angeles where she attended various dance classes. She worked as a dance teacher in both Sitges and Madrid during the summers. During Moa's last year in training she got offered a scholarship to the Adrenaline tour workshop in Los Angeles. After four years of training she graduated with a 1.2 Bachelor (honors) degree in dance and became one of the first ever students to graduate the IAB. Dancer/Swing at Gatsby Barcelona (2017) Sitges Carnaval opening number (2017) Dancer POESI Sportswear TV Commercial (2016) Dancer CMD Colonias, Madrid (2016) Teacher H-ill “Bonita” Music video (2015) Dancer/Choreographer Performance Theatre Principal (2014) Dancer Sitges Film Festival, Fashion show (2013) Wedding Reception Entertainment Birthday Party Entertainment Private Parties Corporate Events Cocktail Receptions Christening Entertainment Product Launches Trade Shows Christmas Party Events Bar Mitzvah Bat Mitzvah Gala Dinners Jewish Weddings After Dinner Entertainment. Related Blog posts... Other Speciality Act Hong Kong , Hong Kong Forest Hills, New York New York, New York Pianist / Keyboardist Cape Town, Western Cape US, New York

When asked, I say I’m Venezuelan, but my pale skin & freckles, my blue eyes, and my temper tell a different story. I’m a stumbler, not a dancer. My rages are more singsong than operatic, my cruelty more snub-nosed & self-hating than the .50 caliber pee wee macho of a Hugo Chavez or a Tony Montana. I’m really Irish with a Spanish name. Well, mostly Irish. Or, more accurately, I’m Irish enough ; I’m also Scottish and Eastern European and Ashkenazi, plus that soupçon of Iberian that comes with the surname. I’m so little of so much that I don’t care about any of it. No Venezuelan pride. No secret Jewish squee. Too suburban for my hillbilly cred and too indifferent to claim anything Irish at all. (Unless indifference is an Irish trait — I’ll never know, though, because indifference.) Plus I hate St. Patrick’s Day. I always have. When I was a kid, St. Patrick’s Day was about putting in the minimal effort to avoid some dummy pinching you. That’s it. When I got older, I thought I’d dig the party vibe, but I quickly learned St. Patrick’s Day combines in all the douchey drunkenness of frat parties and spring break with disgusting food coloring in the booze. And in the vomit. So it’s days like today that I’m dearly happy I live in Los Angeles, a city so bereft of Irish people that we aren’t even on the map of Irish communities in the United States : This is okay with me. I know right now most of my friends in New York and Boston and Chicago are either getting drunk on green beer, vomiting green beer, dodging people vomiting green beer, watching parades next people about to vomit green beer, or some nasty combination of these. Usually I get city envy on holidays here. Los Angeles shows its sleepy provincial roots. New Years Eve and Fourth of July are particularly dire. Restaurants close at 11. Bars close at 2. But today, I was happy I had no idea it was St. Patrick’s Day until I overheard two of the girls working at the vet : “Are you doing anything tonight?” “St. Patrick’s Day, right ? Isn’t it?” “Oh, that’s right. Oh, wow. Now I gotta stay home. All the bars are gonna be gross.” Yes, yes they are.

Simon Parmet's choir arrangement of Louis Lewandowski's Hallelujah. A work researched by Simo Muir as part of Performing the Jewish Archive. Simon Parmet's choir arrangement of Louis Lewandowski's song Hallelujah (Psalm 100) for the Jewish Choir Association in Helsinki. The lyrics are in Ashkenazi Hebrew. The piece was performed as part of Jac Weinstein's tableau Mother Rachel and her children in the 'Out of the Shadows' festival in Madison-Wisconsin (2016), Leeds & York (2016) and Czech Republic (2016).

ZEMENE's dream is to attend College in the United States and become a physicians assistant so she can help others. Zemene is grateful for all the help she's been given by so many people, including Dr. Rick Hodes, Dr. Boachie and The Olney School in Ohio. Zemene is determined to continue her education after graduating from high school so she can earn a degree and help young girls in her village. Donate directly to Z Prod Films and 100% of your donation will go towards Zemene's college fund. Z Prod Films Zemene's School in Belessa, Ethiopia has been completed! The construction of the four classroom school in Zemen's village, Belessa, Ethiopia is completed! It was furnished with school desks and blackboards and handed over to the local community education office. Thank you to the local American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC) in the endeavor to build this school with the help of the local community and to Pathways to Children, a non-profit based in Mpls. A huge thank you to everyone who contributed to make this dream of Zemene's possible. We loved screening the film and sharing Zemene's story and are humbled by all the support. To make a donation to Zemene for her education please make your check payable to: Melissa Donovan Z Prod Films, LLC c/o Melissa Donovan 318 W15th St #2B New York, NY 10011 For a 501c3 Donation, please see Rise Up, Inc. at the bottom of the page. To make a Donation by Paypal see the link below. We continue our effort to bring positive change to Zemene's village with help from the non-profit organization, Ethiopia Reads. Recently, we provided two water tanks to the village to help store water during the drought. If you'd like to donate to this cause and goal of bringing a well to the village, please visit: http://www.ethiopiareads.org/zemene To make a Tax-Deductible Donation via our Fiscal Sponsor, Rise Up, a 501(c)3 non-profit organization. Rise Up is committed to providing educational spaces, opportunities, and learning resources to rural, developing, and indigenous communities around the world. Please mail checks to: Rise Up, Inc. 6825 Hwy 10Tahlequah, OK 74464 Please put “Zemene” in the memo line. You will receive a tax deductible receipt for your donation.

בְּשֵׁם יְהוָה, אֵל עוֹלָם (In the Name of the LORD, the Everlasting God…) Sefer Ha’Berashit (Genesis) 21.33 In the wake of millennia of religious conflict, infighting – as well as fighting and conquering perceived external enemies – many laudable attempts at peacemaking have emerged which seek to unite believers in a variety of different faiths. To be sure, there are numerous religious communities which hold to such universalistic ideals: Sikhism, Baha`ism, Buddhism, Taoism, and indeed most expressions of Judaism, as well as authentic forms of Sufism hold to the notion that we can all coexist and even come together at times in a shared space for worship and to embrace our similarities rather than our differences. Unfortunately, the problems facing certain faith communities are more deeply rooted than this solution is prepared to handle. Our approach, while well-known and not in the least bit of dispute halakhically, is quite surprise to those who might not have been aware of the historically favorable view of Islam and Muslims. Even more than his father, Avraham ben Rambam went even further to say: “You are aware of the ways of the ancient saints of Israel, which are not of but little practise among our contemporaries, that have now become the practice of the Ṣūfīs of Islām, on account of the iniquities of Israel.” But far from suggesting that Jews synthesize Islamic practice with Judaism, Avraham ben Rambam makes it clear that Islam was bringing Jewish practice to the nations, not the nations bringing `avodah zarah to Jews: “Do not regard as unseemly our comparison of that to the behaviour of the Sufis, for the latter imitate the prophets and walk in their footsteps, not the prophets in theirs.” As the Nagid, the head of Egyptian Jewry, Avraham ben Rambam put these words into practice by returning the Jewish community to prayer prostrations or “Selah” that Muslims had adopted from ancient Jewish practice. The Qur’an, of course, makes it clear that there is nothing new it was bringing (41.43; 42.13; 46.9; 46.10, et al.); but instead that it was a “reminder” (15.6; 15:10; 36:10) to people familiar with Biblical stories, of the Torah that was with them, “between your hands” (e.g. 5.43); and that every Islamic practice was in fact a practice of the Biblical prophets that had come before. It is clear that Rabbeinu Avraham ben Rambam’s words were not only authoritative from a Jewish perspective, but were also consistent with what the Qur’an says about itself. By the time of the Rambam’s grandsons, David and `Ovadyah, and indeed throughout many generations to follow, both the works of the Maimonidean dynasty as well as letters found in the Cairo Genizah caché (discovered in 1896) make it clear that Jews and Sufi Muslims were engaged in co-worship, shared meditation retreats, zhikr (Heb: hazkarah Interfaith communities, as they have incarnated thus far, are usually of one of two sorts. One type will merely ask all faiths to coexist and not engage painful histories, or issues of theological contention. The other will simply amalgamate two or more faiths into a sort of hybrid religion. It should be stated from the outset that this is not what the Hashlamah Project, nor the Judeo-Sufis of the Medieval era were engaged in. One of the earliest and best documented historical precedences for the Hashlamah Project Study Circles is even older than the Medieval Judeo-Sufi Rabbis. During the Second Temple Era, there was a huge movement of Jewish converts in the Roman Empire. This was so widespread, that the term “proselyting” comes from the Greek term for one being made a Jew through conversion. A staggering 10% of the Roman Empire had in fact converted to the popular Jewish religion. Dio Cassius writes in the second century CE, confirming as a third party what the Jewish sources said on this matter, that term “Jew” is not one genos of people, but instead “applies to all men even of different races who follow the laws of the Jews.” Judaism both intrigued the Roman imagination, and offered a far cheaper alternative to the trendy mystery cults of Isis and Mithras worship. But Judaism required a full convert to be circumcised, and as it was rare for non-Jews in the Roman world to be circumcised in infancy, this was a painfully difficult step for the adult convert to take. Therefore, because many Roman non-Jews enjoyed the guidance and teachings of the Torah but did not fully-convert, archeological evidence indicates from synagogue donor lists, that an even larger number were synagogue attendees and partial members known as “Theosebes” or “God Fearers” who nevertheless did not take the final step to conversion, even while observing some parts of the Torah. This mass-movement did not die off with the destruction of the Temple. The Christian founder Paul saw in the Theosebes fertile recruiting ground for Christianity, and indeed, the nearly over-night success of the religion was owed to his courting of Theosebes. The Qur’an too makes reference to such individuals by the name “Muslim.” Indeed, while Jews are “God Fearers” and this term applies to Jews as well as a type of non-Jews, the term “Muslim” applied Qur’anically both to Believers (“Mu’minin” in Arabic, or “Maminim” in Hebrew), and those who the Qur’an admonishes to only call themselves Muslims because they have not yet risen to the level of “Iman” or “Belief” (49.14). For this reason, Rabbeinu Bachya ibn Paqudah explains, in the 11th century, that truly pietistic Judaism is not simply “islam” or “submitting to God” it is complete “surrender without resistance to God” (istislam). The Theosebes model was not restricted to the Second Temple Era. Indeed, we see that many of these donor lists continued to reflect such numbers for centuries to come, even after the destruction of the Temple. So too do we see this model in Muhammad’s day. In Medinah, a place termed by the Hebrew word for “State,” Muhammad was invited to lead the community that the late-preservation of the Constitution of Medinah (Safihat al-Madinah) describes as “One Ummah” (Ummatan Wahidatan). Throughout the Qur’an, the term “Ummah” – a Hebrew word for “Nation” – is used exclusively for a “religious community,” in contrast to people divided by different kinds of faith.” One such example from the Qur’an is Sūrah 23.52, which is translated by Shakir and Pickthal as meaning nothing short of “One Religion.” The Yusuf Ali version takes more creative license, rendering it “a single Brotherhood.” It was clear that Jews and “Muslims” of both the grade “muslim” and “mu’min” were viewed as part of “One Religious Community” in Medinah, even while not all were Jews. Perhaps this is indeed why Jews in the Levant and Andalusia immediately allied themselves with the immigrating Muslim forces who came to fight the Christians who had been subjugating them. Perhaps this is why the earliest Jewish references to Muhammad’s followers are entirely positive, make no disparaging references to Muhammad (even while disparaging the Ishma`elites before him), call his companion Omar a “lover of Israel” and refer to the Ishma`elite immigrants as “a God send.” These Levantine Jews, and their Muslims who they met, had never heard of the stories of Jew-hatred and tribal genocide which Ibn Ishaq (d. 767, or 761) concocted as political polemic, following the Issuniyah uprising against the repression and oppression of the Abbasid Caliphate (750–1258 C.E.). These late stories – penned a century and a half after Muhammad – were described by Imam Malik ibn Anas (c. 711 – 795), of the Maliki mazhhab as “bizarre,” and as written by a man who was “the greatest of impostors” (dajjal min dajajilah) according to Imam Malik. Whether in the Second Temple Era with Jews and Theosebes praying and congregating together, or in Medinah with Jews and Muslims engaged as “One Religious Community” we see that the Torah’s respect for “Gerei Toshav” or “Yirei Ha’Shamayim” continued to be expressed and extended towards non-Jewish worshipers of the God of the Torah. What we are doing at the Hashlamah Project Study Circles is not simply an “interfaith community,” nor is it a hybridization of Judaism and Islam, it is an ANCIENT framework for Jewish and Muslim co-existence and co-worship that is based off of a model that has proven for centuries to work when put into practice. We do not need to reinvent the proverbial wheel. The way to build it has already been outlined in the Torah. All we must do is put it back into practice and reestablish communities on small scales – like the Judeo-Sufi communities of Rabbeinu Bachya ibn Paquda, Rabbi Natanyel ibn al-Fayyumi, and indeed all of the Maimonidean dynasty – which show that peace is possible. We must not allow the failures of those who have broken from this model, followed by Jewish communities historically, to depress us into cynicism. Pessimism is the enemy of opportunity. Peace is not something that is established at the end of a “process,” peace is the process. Let’s start today. If you would like to get involved, contact us at the following address, and find out if there is a Hashlamah Chapter in your city! The Hashlamah Project and Hash P.O. Box 622 Yellow Springs, OH 45387 If you would like to learn more about a historical understanding of “Islam” in the time of Muhammad, read the Masters thesis by the author of this piece. It is available from the following links, or by contacting the author directly at www.MicahNaziri.com

Saint Anthony the Great Saint Anthony (or Antony) the Great, "star of the wilderness" and "father of all Christian monks," is a greatly beloved figure of the ancient Christian world. Though he was certainly not the first Christian to leave the cities for a life of solitude in more remote areas, Antony stands prominently as the hugely popular father of the important Desert Father-Mother movement in upper Egypt. The movement soon spread this eremetic (hermit) and cenobitic (communal monastic) form of deeply meditative, very austere, and psychologically rigorous Christian spirituality over to Palestine, Syria, Greece and beyond. Not long afterwards, the movement crossed the Mediterranean sea to Italy and thence to much of Europe. On this webpage, we can peruse the biographical details about St. Anthony/Antony the Great, and then read the spiritual teachings from this great Christian master of meditation and morality as preserved by the tradition. Here's the biography of St. Anthony, which, for convenience, I have drawn, with slight changes and corrections of grammar and punctuation, from a good basic account of the saint by an anonymous author for Wikipedia [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_the_Great]. Other articles on the Life of Anthony are available on the internet, such as from the online Catholic Encyclopedia. + + + + + + + + + + (Posted at Wikipedia:) Saint Anthony (c.251-356 CE) Most of what we know about the life of St Anthony is in the Greek Vita [Life] by Athanasius (d. 373), which soon circulated in Latin. Several surviving homilies [from Apophthegmata Patrum, Sayings of the Fathers, and works of Cassian and Palladius] and epistles provide his teachings. Anthony was born near Heraclea in Upper Egypt around 251 to wealthy parents. When he was twenty years old, his parents died and left him with the care of his unmarried sister. In 285, he decided to follow the words of Christ who had said: "If you want to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasures in heaven; and come, follow Me." (Matthew 19:21). Anthony gave his wealth to the poor and needy, and placed his sister with a group of Christian virgins, a sort of proto-nunnery at the time. Christian monasticism had not yet been established, so those who wanted to live an ascetical life retired separately to isolated locations on the outskirts of cities. The pagan ascetic hermits and loosely organized cenobitic communities [of communal monastics] that the Hellenized Jewish philosopher Philo of Alexandria described as the Therapeutae in the first century were long established in the harsh environments by the Lake Mareotis close to Alexandria, and in other less-accessible regions. Philo understood: for "this class of persons may be met with in many places, for both Greece and barbarian countries want to enjoy whatever is perfectly good." (Philo, De vita contemplativa, written ca. AD 10) By the 2nd century, there were also famous Christian ascetics, such as Saint Thecla. Saint Anthony decided to follow this tradition and headed out into the alkaline desert region, called the Nitra in Latin (Wadi al-Natrun today), about 60 miles west of Alexandria, some of the most rugged terrain of the Western Desert. According to Athanasius, the devil fought St Anthony by afflicting him with boredom, laziness, and phantoms of women, which he overcame by the power of prayer, providing a theme for Christian art. After that, he moved to a tomb, where he closed the door on himself, depending on some local villagers who brought him food. When the devil perceived his ascetic life and his intense worship, he was envious and beat him mercilessly, leaving him unconscious. When his friends from the local village came to visit him and found him in this condition, they carried him to a church. After he recovered, he made a second effort and went back to the desert, further out, to a mountain by the Nile, called Pispir, now Der el Memun, opposite Arsinoë in the Fayyum. Here he lived strictly enclosed in an old abandoned Roman fort for some 20 years. According to Athanasius, the devil again resumed his war against Anthony, only this time the phantoms were in the form of wild beasts, wolves, lions, snakes and scorpions. They appeared as if they were about to attack him or cut him into pieces. But the Saint would laugh at them and say, "If any of you have any authority over me, only one would have been sufficient to fight me." At his saying this, they disappeared as though in smoke, and God gave him the victory over the devils. While in the fort, he only communicated with the outside world by a crevice through which food would be passed and he would say a few words. Saint Anthony would prepare a quantity of bread that would sustain him for six months. He did not allow anyone to enter his cell: whoever came to him, stood outside and listened to his advice. Then one day he emerged from the fort with the help of villagers to break down the door. By this time most had expected him to have wasted away, or gone insane in his solitary confinement, but he emerged healthy, serene, and enlightened. Everyone was amazed that he had been through these trials and emerged spiritually rejuvenated. He was hailed as a hero and from this time forth the legend of Anthony began to spread and grow. The backstory of one of the surviving epistles, directed to Constantine the Great, recounts how the fame of Saint Anthony spread abroad and reached Emperor Constantine. The Emperor wrote to him, offering him praise and asked him to pray for him. The brethren were pleased with the Emperor’s letter, but Anthony did not pay any attention to it, and he said to them, "The books of God, the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, commands us everyday, but we do not heed what they tell us, and we turn our backs on them." Under the persistence of the brethren who told him, "Emperor Constantine loves the church," he accepted to write him a letter blessing him, and praying for the peace and safety of the empire and the church. Next he went to the Fayyum and confirmed the brethren there in the Christian faith, then returned to his old Roman fort. Anthony wished to become a martyr and went to Alexandria. He visited those who were imprisoned for the sake of Christ and comforted them. When the Governor saw that he was confessing his Christianity publicly, not caring what might happen to him, he ordered him not to appear in the city. But the Saint didn’t heed his threats. The Governor faced Anthony and argued with him in order that he might arouse his anger so that he might be tortured and martyred, but it did not happen. Then Anthony went back to the old Roman fort and many came to visit him and to hear his teachings. He saw that these visits kept him away from his worship. As a result, he went further into the Eastern Desert of Egypt. He travelled to the inner wilderness for three days, until he found a spring of water and some palm trees, and then he chose to settle there. On this spot now stands the monastery of Saint Anthony the Great (see below). On occasions, he would go to the monastery on the outskirts of the desert by the Nile to visit the brethren, then return to his inner monastery. According to Athanasius, Anthony heard a voice telling him, "Go out and see." He went out and saw an angel who wore a girdle with a cross, one resembling the holy Eskiem (Tonsure or Schema), and on his head was a head cover (Kolansowa). He was sitting while braiding palm leaves, then he stood up to pray, and again he sat to weave. A voice came to him saying, "Anthony, do this and you will rest." Henceforth, he started to wear this tunic that he saw, and began to weave palm leaves [as a way to ward off boredom]. Anthony prophesied about the persecution that was about to happen to the church and the control of the heretics over it, the church victory and its return to its formal glory, and the end of the age. When Saint Macarius visited Saint Anthony, Anthony clothed him with the monk’s garb, and foretold what would become of him. When the day drew near of the departure of St Paul the First Hermit in the desert, Anthony went to him and buried him, after clothing him in a tunic which was a present from St Athanasius the Apostolic, 20th Pope of Alexandria. When Saint Anthony felt that the day of his departure had approached, he commanded his disciples to give his staff to St Macarius, and to give one sheepskin cloak to St Athanasius and the other sheepskin cloak to St Serapion, his disciple. He further instructed his disciples to bury his body in an unmarked, secret grave, lest his body become an object of veneration. He stretched himself on the ground and gave up his spirit. St Anthony the Great lived for 105 years and departed on the year 356. Probably he spoke only his native language, Coptic, but his sayings were spread in a Greek translation. His biography was written by Saint Athanasius the Apostolic and titled Life of Saint Anthony the Great. Many stories are also told about him in various collections of sayings of the Desert Fathers. Some of the stories included in Saint Anthony’s biography are perpetuated now mostly in paintings, where they give an opportunity for artists to depict their more lurid or bizarre fantasies. Many pictorial artists, from Hieronymus Bosch to Salvador Dalí, have depicted these incidents from the life of Anthony; in prose, the tale was retold and embellished by Gustave Flaubert. Founder of monasticism—St Anthony and Paul the Hermit are seen as the founders of Christian monasticism. Paul is lauded by Anthony as the first monk and the cell of Paul exists to this day in Egypt. Anthony himself provided the example that others would follow. Anthony did not himself organize or create a monastery [other accounts say that he did sponsor the founding of some monastic communities], but such grew up around him based on his example of living an ascetic and isolated life that others wished to follow, and who needed the community and company of others to survive the harsh conditions. (End of Wikipedia account of the Life of St. Anthony, based on traditional sources.) (St. Anthony depicted on right, wearing monk's habit, St. Paul the Hermit depicted on left in a tunic; above them, a raven comes down, directed by God to feed the desert saints with a small loaf of bread.) + + + + + + + + + ST. ANTHONY THE GREAT'S LEGACY: The fortress-like Monastery of St Anthony the Great, at Deir El-Kedees El-Anba Antonios, stands at an oasis spring in the Red Sea Mountains, 155 km (100 miles) southeast of Cairo. It was founded in the mid-4th century, perhaps in 356, on Anthony’s burial site. This Coptic Orthodox monastery, presided over by an abbot, is one of the oldest Christian monasteries in the world. The church is one of Egypt’s great treasures—some of the wall paintings here date from the sixth and the ninth centuries, and among them is a picture of the founder, St Anthony himself. He lived in a tiny cave, high above the desert, for 40 years soon after AD 300, and the monastery—really a city in the desert—was built in the 360s. The monks who live here still speak Coptic, a language descended from the language of the ancient Egyptians. (Note: The first true monastery was founded by Pachomius in about 320–325 at Tabennisi, Egypt. Historical texts mention the site, but until 2005 no archeological evidence had previously been found there, earlier than the sixth century. Then an earlier collection of monks’ rooms with private living areas was uncovered, and a central communal room, where the archeological team found cooking implements.) + + + + + + + + + + Resources on St. Anthony, on the Desert Fathers and on the inner contemplative way of Hesychia (Stillness, Tranquility, Silence) On the greatest early proponent of this way of Christian ascetic mysticism, St. Anthony the Great (251-356), see the Life of St. Antony written by St. Athanasius (various translations, some online); The Letters of Saint Antony the Great, translated by Derwas Chitty (Fairacres, Oxford OX4 1TB: SLG [Sisters of the Love of God] Press, 1975). See also Chitty’s translation of a collection of letters by a disciple of St. Antony, The Letters of Ammonas (SLG Press, 1979). British Anglican nun Benedicta Ward translated and edited some excellent works, The Wisdom of the Desert Fathers: Systematic Sayings from the Anonymous Series of the Apophthegmata Patrum, SLG Press, 2nd ed., 1986; and a larger work, The Desert Christian: Sayings of the Desert Fathers: The Alphabetical Collection, NY: Macmillan, 1975. Thomas Merton put together a little collection of stories with a good introduction entitled The Wisdom of the Desert, New Directions, 1960; Helen Waddell did a fine excerpting from several sources of sayings and biographies in her The Desert Fathers, U. of Michigan Ann Arbor ed., 1957 (first publ. in 1936). Two essential and quite interesting biographical works are The Lives of the Desert Fathers: The Historia Monachorum in Aegypto (Norman Russell, Tr., introd. by Sr. Benedicta Ward), WMU Station, Kalamazoo, MI 49008: Cistercian Publications, 1981 (an eyewitness work by one of seven Palestinian Christian monks who traveled as a group through the Egyptian desert in 394); and Palladius: The Lausiac History (Robert Meyer, Tr.) Westminster, MD: Newman Press, 1965. Palladius was an eye-witness pilgrim in Egypt, Syria, Palestine and Asia Minor in 419-420. Among other interesting things, Palladius observed that in Egypt (birthplace of this type of Christian holiness based on hesychia), Desert Mothers outnumbered the Fathers by a factor of two to one: an estimated 20,000 women monastics and anchorites compared to 10,000 men. See B. Ward’s The Desert Christians for teachings from Desert Mothers, Syncletica, Theodora, Sarah. The Philokalia [“Love of the Beautiful/Exalted”] was compiled by St. Nikodimos of the Holy Mountain at Mt. Athos, Greece (where the Desert Christian tradition moved after being eclipsed in Egypt, Syria, and Palestine by the spread of Islam), and gives writings from over a dozen Desert Fathers from the 4th to 14th centuries from the Middle East, Near East, and Greece; see The Philokalia (4 vols.) (G.E.H. Palmer, Philip Sherrard, & Kallistos Ware, Tr.), London: Faber & Faber, 1979-1999. (The Glossaries in these volumes are especially valuable as a quick introduction to Desert Christianity.) See also John Binns, Ascetics and Ambassadors of Christ: The Monasteries of Palestine, 314-631 (Oxford, UK: Clarendon Press, 1994) for more of what transpired up in Palestine. + + + + + + + + + + Teachings of St. Anthony/Antony the Great: One who knows oneself, knows God: and one who knows God is worthy to worship Him as is right. Therefore, my beloveds in the Lord, know yourselves. (Letter IV, from the authentic collection of Seven Letters [cf. the spurious “20 Letters” attributed to Antony]) [Antony speaks here of the intellect, nous, our highest faculty, not mere reason, but that which can understand the Divine via immediate experience, intuition, or “simple cognition”:] “Holiness is achieved when the intellect is in its natural state.” “The soul realizes its integrity when its intellect is in that state in which it was created.” “Let us purify our mind, for I believe that when the mind is completely pure and is in its natural state, it gains penetrating insight, and it sees more clearly and further than the demons, since the Lord reveals things to it.” (Quoted by St. Hesychios the Priest, in Philokalia). Some elders came to St. Antony and asked him, “Which is the greatest of all virtues?” Each one then gave an opinion, some saying that “fasting and keeping of vigils” best help one come near to God; others said “voluntary poverty” and “detachment”; others said “compassion.” Last of all, Anthony gave his reply: “All that you have said is both necessary and helpful for those who are searching for God and wish to come to Him. But we cannot award the first place to any of these virtues; for there are many among us who have endured fasting and vigils, or have withdrawn into the desert, or have practiced poverty to such an extent that they have not left themselves enough for their daily sustenance, or have performed acts of compassion so generously that they no longer have anything to give; and yet these same monks, having done all this, have nevertheless fallen away miserably from virtue and slipped into vice. What was it, then, that made them stray from the straight path? In my opinion, it was simply that they did not possess the grace of discrimination [wise discernment]; for it is this virtue that teaches a man to walk along the royal road, swerving neither to the right through immoderate [excessive] self-control, nor to the left through indifference and laxity. Discrimination is a kind of eye and lantern of the soul, as is said in the Gospel passage: ‘The light of the body is the eye; if therefore your eye is pure, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is evil, your whole body will be full of darkness’ (Matt. 6:22-3). And this is just what we find. For the power of discrimination, scrutinizing all the thoughts and actions of a man, distinguishes and sets aside everything that is base and not pleasing to God, and keeps him free from delusion…. Scripture also refers to it as ‘discernment’ without which we must do nothing—not even drink the spiritual wine that ‘makes glad the heart of man’ (Psalm 104:15), for it is said, ‘Drink with discernment’ (Proverbs 31:3), and ‘he that does not do all things with discernment is like a city that is broken down and without walls’ (Prov. 25:28). Wisdom, intellect and perceptiveness are united in discrimination; and without these our inner house cannot be built, nor can we gather spiritual wealth (cf. Prov. 24:3-4).… These passages show very clearly that without the gift of discrimination no virtue can stand or remain firm to the end, for it is the mother of all the virtues and their guardian.” (quoted by John Cassian in his Conferences) I beseech you in the name of Jesus the Christ that God may give you the spirit of discernment…. Prepare yourselves while you have [heavenly] intercessors to pray to God for your salvation, that He may pour into your hearts that fire which Jesus came to send upon the earth (Luke 12:49), that you may be able to exercise your hearts and senses, to know how to discern the good from the bad, the right from the left, reality from unreality…. Truly, my beloved, you know that when there is a fair wind, the ship’s captain boasts; but it is in the time of violent adverse winds that every skilled captain is revealed. Antony writes to his dear spiritual children… Truly my children, the love that is between you and me is no bodily love but a spiritual, religious love. For this cause I grow not weary of praying to God day and night for you, that you may be able to know the grace which He has wrought toward you…. Now, my children, neglect not to cry out day and night to God, constraining the bounty of the Father, and in His bounty He will give you help from heaven, teaching you until you know what is [spiritually] good for you. Truly, my children, we are dwelling in our death, and staying in the house of the robber [finite, fleeting Time], and bound with the bonds of death. Now therefore, don’t sleep, that you may offer yourselves a sacrifice to God in all holiness, which none can inherit without sanctification…. Know that God always loves His creatures—their substance being immortal, not to be dissolved with the bodies [at death]. (Letter V) Understand that, be it the holy heavens or angels or archangels or thrones or dominions or cherubim or seraphim or sun or moon or stars, or patriarchs or prophets or apostles, or devil or satan or evil spirits or powers of the air, or (to say no more) be it man or woman, in the beginning of their creation, they all derived from One [God]. [NOTE: This nondualistic teaching by Anthony says that even evil originally came from God and also that the world is not created by some rival power, as most Gnostics dualistically believed.] (Letter V; see also Letter VI for same idea) Truly, my beloved in the Lord, not at one time only did God visit His creatures, but from the foundation of the world, whenever any have come to the Creator of all by the law of His covenant implanted in them, God is present with each one of these in His bounty and grace by His Spirit. But in the case of those rational natures in which that covenant grew cold… they became altogether irrational, and worshipped the creation rather than the Creator. But the Creator of all in His great bounty visited us by the implanted law of the covenant. For He is immortal Substance…. And the Creator of all, who repents not of His love, desiring to visit our sickness and confusion, raised up Moses the Lawgiver … and founded for us the House of Truth, which is the Church, that makes us one in God; for He desires that we should be brought back to our first beginning…. Now therefore, O God, we know what You have given us—that we are children and heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ. (cf. Romans 8:17) (Letter II) All you who have prepared to go to God, I greet you in the Lord, beloved, from the least to the greatest, both men and women… Truly, my beloved, this is a great thing for you, that you should ask concerning the understanding of the intellect [nous] substance [or spiritual nature], which has a beginning [in God] but no end [eternal in God]. … I want God to give you a heart of knowledge and a spirit of discernment, that you may be able to offer your hearts as a pure sacrifice [“making sacred”] before the Father, in great holiness, without blemish…. [But] everyone who delights in his own will, and is subdued to his own thoughts, and takes up the things sown in his heart [i.e., anything not in accordance with God], and rejoices in them, and supposes in his heart that these are some great chosen mystery, and justifies himself in what he does—the soul of such a man is a lair of evil spirits, counseling him to evil… and over such a one the demons have great power…. They are not bodily visible, but you must know that we serve as bodies for them, for our soul receives their wickedness [e.g., their addictions, ambitious desires, hateful or self-destructive impulses, slothfulness, etc.]. And when it [the soul] receives them, then it brings them to manifestation by the body in which we dwell. Now, then, my children, let us give them no place…. [So,] I pray that you may not grow weary of loving one another…. Lift up your body in which you are clothed, and make it an altar, and set thereon all your thoughts, and leave there every evil counsel before the Lord, and lift up the hands of your heart to Him, that is, to the Creator Mind, and pray to God that He may grant you His great invisible fire, that it may descend from heaven and consume the altar and all that is on it…. Strive to offer yourselves as a sacrifice to God always, and give gladness to the power that helps you… and to all the band of the saints [who are looking over and helping us]… [I pray that] since we are all created of the same invisible substance, which has a beginning but no end, we may love one another with a single love. For all who know themselves, know that they are of one immortal substance…. Therefore we are all members one of another, and the body of Christ. Therefore we ought greatly to love one another. For he who loves his neighbor, loves God; and he who loves God, loves, too, his own soul. (Letter VI) Except through great humility in your whole heart and mind and spirit and soul and body, you will not be able to inherit the Kingdom [Domain] of God…. For he who knows his own disgrace, seeks again His elect grace; and whoever knows his own death, also knows His life eternal. (Letter VI) The Holy Spirit comforts us and brings us back to our beginning, to recover our inheritance and the dominion of that same comforting Spirit. Therefore, “as many as have been baptized into Christ [the Divine anointing], have put on Christ: there is neither male nor female, there is neither bond nor free.” (Gal. 3:27-8) (Letter VII) I no longer fear God: I love Him. For perfect love cast out fear. (Sayings of the Fathers, Alphabetical Collection) A man asked abbot Anthony, “What shall I keep, that I may please God?” Anthony said: “Wherever you go, have God ever before your eyes. In whatever you do, hold by the example of the holy Scriptures; and in whatever place you abide, don’t be swift to leave [out of restlessness]. These three things keep, and you will be saved.”

Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement, begins at sundown on Tuesday and continues until Wednesday evening. Traditionally, Yom Kippur falls on the 10th day of the seventh month of the Jewish calendar, Tishrei. Rosh Hashanah, which happened on the first day of the month, marked the new year and the first day of the High Holy Days, which end on Wednesday night with the conclusion of Yom Kippur. The day marks one of the largest attendance days at synagogues, and is spent fasting and praying. Prayers include confessions of sins and requesting forgiveness for any wrongs done. Some schools and offices across the country will be closed in observance. Read more: The Playground Theory of Morality - How to Help Victims of the Texas School Shooting - TIME's 100 Most Influential People of 2022 - What the Buffalo Tragedy Has to Do With the Effort to Overturn Roe - Column: The U.S. Failed Miserably on COVID-19. Canada Shows It Didn't Have to Be That Way - N.Y. Will Soon Require Businesses to Post Salaries in Job Listings. Here's What Happened When Colorado Did It - The 46 Most Anticipated Movies of Summer 2022 - ‘We Are in a Moment of Reckoning.’ Amanda Nguyen on Taking the Fight for Sexual Violence Survivors to the U.N.

Fasayil is a Palestinian village sandwiched between two Israeli settlements, Tomer and El’Fasail, and settlement agricultural land stolen after 1967. The village was divided into Area B and Area C under the misleading ‘Oslo Peace Accords’. Fasayil lies in Area B while Fasayil al-Wusta and Fasayil al-Fauqa were designated Area C. Palestinians living in Area B are allowed to build houses and schools, in addition to running water and electricity to their homes. Although deeply affected by the occupation, limited access to health and education helps living conditions. Palestinians in Area C (95% of Jordan Valley) are denied these basic rights because they live under full Israeli civil and military control. Some of the punitive measures against the civilian population include; discriminatory planning laws which make construction nearly impossible, no provision for running water or electricity, checkpoints which restrict movement and violent military harassment including the constant threat of home demolition. Laws here are racist because their primary objective is to create a ‘democracy’ for Jews only in an area where the majority of people are Palestinian. Israeli policy is clearly designed to create the conditions where Palestinians are forced to leave their land. Sharp inequalities are visible inside the village. Because access to running water is prohibited in Area C, trees and plants become sparse and as a result of planning laws, the tarmac road suddenly turns into rubble. Despite conditions described, a community of around 600 people living Fasayil al-Fauqa, refuse to leave their land. This struggle to exist is literally invisible to the many private coaches full of tourists shuttled past daily. Large areas of lush green from intensive settlement agriculture give the illusion of an oasis against the background of the dry Jordan Valley landscape. In reality, this is the ugly face of apartheid. The theft of water by the Israeli state to cultivate stolen land provides a large economic incentive for continuing the illegal occupation. Israeli agricultural exports from the Jordan Valley worked out at around £86 million in 2010. Much of the Israeli produce on your supermarket shelves comes from here. Palestinians living in Fasayil have little choice but to work on the settlements surrounding their village for ILS50 (£8-12) per day (Israeli minimum wage is ILS25 per hour). Electricity is also subsidized for settlers. The result is a complex inter-dependent relationship between the Israeli government (including their army), Jewish settlers involved in large scale agriculture and oppressed Palestinians working for a fraction of the minimum wage. After many meetings and discussions between residents in Fasayil al-Fauqa and Jordan Valley Solidarity (JVS), it was decided that construction would start on a community centre made from mud bricks. On August 6 2011, around 20 volunteers from the village, supported by Palestinian and international volunteers from JVS began making mud bricks. The process is simple; dig a trench in the soil, position the portable water tanker above the trench and mix the soil with water to make mud – or ‘tina’ in Arabic. Waste straw which can no longer be used for livestock is added to the mix before buckets are carried to a designated area near the trench. Here, wooden block moulds are filled with tina to produce bricks. People work in the evening and night because of the heat. After approximately 24hrs or before we start the next night, the semi dried bricks are turned upright to complete the process. Literally thousands of mud bricks were produced this way over a 4 week period. During the course of these 4 weeks, Palestinian and international volunteers were regularly harassed by the Israeli military. They appeared regularly at night, demanding ID from everyone and questioning what we were doing. On some of the earlier encounters, they would take the internationals to one side and warn us with concern that ‘we were in a danger’. Aware of our privilege as western passport holders, we knew to keep quiet as any provocation could potentially have more serious consequences for our Palestinian friends. Living in Fasayil allowed us to briefly experience the harsh conditions created by the occupation. After spending time there, it would be hard for anyone not to respect how, under the circumstances, people live with a strong sense of dignity. And regardless of obvious cultural differences, display unconditional kindness to strangers. It was crazy to hear one commander of a unit, who arrived with 8 heavily armed soldiers in two military jeeps, proclaim that we were in a dangerous area. The scariest thing was he actually believed what he was saying – Arabs were dangerous, period. Completely oblivious to the fact that we were making mud bricks in the moonlight and the only danger in this situation was soldiers whose mission was to occupy a civilian population on foreign land. This level of indoctrination is at the heart of Zionist or Israeli State policy. The soldiers, who really seemed brainwashed, were not providing ‘security’ or ‘order’, but enforcing a system of apartheid where the wholesale theft and exploitation of; land, resources and labour has been normalized. An act of aggression by the soldiers prompted us to finish this phase of our campaign. They came during the night when nobody was around and stole our 4 tools we used to make tina bricks. They smashed the wooden moulds and destroyed a few bricks leaving a clear footprint in one. After discovering the damage, a wave of anger motivated all hands available to stockpile all of the bricks closer to the village and dig the foundations for the house. We can only speculate why the soldier was motivated to leave his boot print in our mud brick. One thing is clear, this kind of behavior is expected – he or she didn’t need orders. On March 10 1948, orders were dispatched from Tel Aviv to military units on the ground. Plan D (Dalet in Hebrew) detailed methods on how to cause mass terror in order to expel Palestinians from vast areas of their country. The mission took six months to complete. When it was over, more than half of Palestine’s population, 800,000 people had been expelled from their homes. 531 villages and 11 urban areas were emptied of their inhabitants. This is a clear cut example of Ethnic Cleansing, a crime against humanity. Ethnic Cleansing always was and still is central to Israeli policy [see quotes below]. Many leaders have come and gone since celebrated Zionist and undisputable war criminal, Ben Gurion, ordered Plan D into action in 1948. Systematic expulsion of Palestinians from their land, destroying livelihoods, identity and culture in the process, remains acceptable and even perceived as a necessity by the vast majority of Israeli society. Israeli soldiers (made up of society under mandatory service), are fed a strict diet of propaganda and lies from their first day of school. Manipulating minds to the point where overwhelming force against a civilian population seems legitimate. Physical and psychological walls enforce apartheid here. Palestinian determination to remain on their land in Fasayil is incredible. Building houses out of mud bricks can seem futile when the military continue to demolish homes in the Jordan Valley. It takes a lot of time and energy compared to more conventional methods but comes (at a very low cost) directly from the surrounding environment. Not recognizing racist planning laws feels good and is inspiring to others. Our action sends a message to racist politicians in Tel Aviv, who are using violence to create a land only for Jewish people where there is an Arab majority. Our action also sends a message to their foot soldiers on the ground and most importantly, to people standing in solidarity here and around the world, we will not lie down. Strong communities refusing to accept oppression is a critical part of resisting occupation. Together we can challenge these so called ‘accepted norms’. Not everyone has time to make mud bricks in Fasayil but people should do what they can to support this struggle. Many of us in the West can boycott Israeli produce – most of which comes from occupied Palestine and directly funds apartheid. We can take time to read behind the headlines and talk to our friends about why it’s important to know where the food on your plate comes from. History tells us that this level of oppression is unsustainable. Fathy Khuduri, main co-coordinator of JVS campaign said, “We are supporting them to remain on their land. We are not supporting the people of Fasayil because they are poor. We are working with the people because we are trying to mobilise a civil resistance movement against the occupation, and against the Israeli ethnic cleansing project in the Jordan Valley.” It is worth noting that before the land was occupied in 1967, the Palestinian population of the Jordan Valley was estimated between 300,000 and 320,000 but now is estimated at around 58,000. Currently there are around 9500 Jews living in 30 officially populated settlements. Every Jewish settler family in the Jordan Valley (from anywhere in the world) is given a free house, US$20,000, 70 dunnams (km2), free healthcare, a 75% discount on electricity, utilities and transportation, and an unlimited water supply. Israeli Prime Minister Quotes “The story of settlement in the Jordan Valley is the story of pioneering Zionism, of challenges and exceptional people, believers who bound their lives to this magnificent enterprise with few examples like it in our history. It is an example of the power of stubbornness and persistence in facing the difficulties of climate, environment, security, of firm hold in in the harsh land of the Jordan Valley until reaching results.” Ehud Barak, Prime Minister 1999-2001 ”Isreal must have secure and defensible borders to ensure its future. The Jordan Valley communities are an essential element in determining the eastern border of the state. We can maintain these communities only if the residents there are encouraged and helped” Binyamin Netanyahu, Prime Minister 1996-1999 and 2009-present “You don’t simply bundle people onto trucks and drive them away… I prefer to advocate that in a positive way will induce people to leave” Ariel Sharon, Prime Minister 2001-2006

KentuckyOne Health Acquires Richmond Open MRI, Establishes Saint Joseph Outpatient Care Center Richmond, Ky.—Saint Joseph Health System, a part of KentuckyOne Health, has acquired Richmond Open MRI, a free-standing imaging center in Richmond, which began operation as Saint Joseph Outpatient Care Center today. The center is located off of the Eastern By-Pass on Alycia Drive. The Saint Joseph Outpatient Care Center will provide the same level of services as the former Richmond Open MRI, including: open MRI, CT, PET, general X-Ray, ultrasound, nuclear medicine and bone density. It includes surface level parking and ground level access to patients. Dr. Timothy Dineen, a board certificated radiologist with the former Richmond Open MRI, will join Saint Joseph Outpatient Care Center as the onsite radiologist. “It is our mission to provide highly quality care and convenient access to healthcare services close to home for our patients,” said Shelley Neal, vice president, KentuckyOne Health Ambulatory Services. “This new center will compliment the healthcare services currently available in Richmond and accommodate the needs of the community’s growing population.” Within the past 12 months KentuckyOne has aligned with primary care and specialty physicians in the Richmond community including: • Dr. Jessica Pennington – Family Practice • Dr. Asad Jadoon – Cardiology • Dr. Anil Harrison – Family Practice • Dr. Tony Smith – OB/GYN These primary care, cardiovascular and specialty clinic offices are located nearby and will provide convenient access to diagnostic imaging services and coordinated care for patients in the Richmond area. Saint Joseph Outpatient Care Center will remain an independent testing facility and there will be no changes in the cost of services to patients or payors. KentuckyOne historically has had a limited presence in the Richmond market, despite having healthcare services south of the city in Berea and north of the city in Lexington. About KentuckyOne Health KentuckyOne Health was formed when two major Kentucky health care organizations came together in 2012. KentuckyOne Health combines the Jewish and Catholic heritages of the two former systems – Jewish Hospital & St. Mary’s HealthCare and Saint Joseph Health System. The nonprofit system is committed to improving the health of Kentuckians by integrating medical research, education, technology and health care services wherever patients receive care. KentuckyOne Health has nearly 200 locations including hospitals, physician groups, clinics, primary care centers, specialty institutes and home health agencies, with more than 13,600 employees across the state of Kentucky and southern Indiana.

If Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu presses forward with the peace negotiations in a meaningful fashion, he will face a genuine coalition crisis. Netanyahu’s recent decision to release 104 Palestinian prisoners including those with “blood on their hands” infuriated his right-wing partners both inside his Likud party and in the larger coalition. With U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry announcing a nine-month timetable for reaching a final status accord with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, tensions will only increase for Netanyahu. Although Netanyahu will probably lose support from the hawks in his coalition, he will likely gain backing from parties outside of the government, if he tangibly shows an interest in resolving the conflict. Currently, Netanyahu has 68 Members of Knesset in his coalition—only seven more than the minimum majority of 61 MKs. It is true that until now Netanyahu has done an excellent job in retaining his coalition support, even from right-wing officials. Jerusalem Post’s Gil Hoffman suggests that this is due to his insistence that the negotiations be held in secrecy. Nonetheless, as the process continues Netanyahu will be forced to eventually reveal his concessions offered—a move that is likely to cause bitter opposition. The first party to leave will probably be the ultra-nationalist Habayit Hayehudi with its 12 MKs. Its charismatic chairman, Naftali Bennett, has fervently rejected the establishment of a Palestinian state in the West Bank—no matter how small—and opposes any removal of Jewish settlements. Furthermore, a significant number of MKs in Netanyahu’s own Likud Party who agree with Bennett are likely to abandon the coalition. However, meaningful progress in peace talks will not necessarily force the ouster of Netanyahu from his position. Chairwoman of the Labor Party, Shelly Yachimovich, announced this past weekend that she would be willing to join the coalition under the following three conditions: Habayit Hayehudi must leave the government; the cabinet must decide to begin evacuating isolated settlements; and an American “blueprint” must exist for a final status agreement. Although these conditions will not be easy for Netanyahu to endorse publicly, they are all essential for a permanent solution. With 15 MKs, Labor’s entrance into the government would provide strong support for Netanyahu and the peace process. It is interesting to note that former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon faced the same challenge; he recruited Labor in 2004 following his support for the controversial Gaza disengagement. Meretz is another party likely to join the government to ensure that the coalition will not fall with an imminent peace agreement approaching. In a meeting with Prince Hassan bin Talal of Jordan, Meretz party chief Zahava Gal-On exclaimed, “Meretz may be in the opposition but (the party) will not be opposed to peace. Netanyahu doesn’t have a majority for a political settlement in his coalition, but he does have a majority in the Knesset.” Meretz’s 6 MKs would also play a critical role in sustaining Netanyahu’s coalition against attacks. Finally, the ultra-Orthodox Shas party with 11 MKs is also another potential coalition partner for Netanyahu. Interestingly, during the Oslo period in the 1990’s, Shas, as a member of the ruling coalition, was essential in maintaining support for negotiations with the Palestinians. With a Palestinian flag flying in the Knesset, Shas MK Yitzchak Cohen participated in the historic meeting with a quarter of MKs and Palestinian legislators in a bid to show support for the peace process. Traditionally, one of the main issues for Shas has been bolstering financial support for religious institutions along with preserving a strong Jewish identity in Israel. If Netanyahu were to offer a substantial increase in payments to yeshivot or Jewish centers of learning, and possibly amend the proposal for increasing enlistment among ultra-Orthodox into the Israeli army, then Shas might be interested in joining such a coalition. Netanyahu is taking a considerable risk in launching peace talks with Abbas. Yet if he backs out at this point, he will risk losing coalition support from Tzipi Livni’s Hatnua Party and left-wing Yesh Atid MKs, along with facing growing isolation from the international community. Still, showing continued progress on the diplomatic front will likely upset current coalition members, causing many of them to leave the government. However, with some creativity, Netanyahu will be able to press forward and reach an agreement—if he is truly interested.

Marriage and fidelityEdit - If you help yourself to the benefits of being married when you are single, you're likely to help yourself to the benefits of being single when you're married. On the Israeli-Arab conflictEdit - I don’t believe in western morality, i.e. don’t kill civilians or children, don’t destroy holy sites, don’t fight during holiday seasons, don’t bomb cemeteries, don’t shoot until they shoot first because it is immoral. The only way to fight a moral war is the Jewish way: "Destroy their holy sites. Kill men, women and children (and cattle)." The first Israeli prime minister who declares that he will follow the Old Testament will finally bring peace to the Middle East. First, the Arabs will stop using children as shields. Second, they will stop taking hostages knowing that we will not be intimidated. Third, with their holy sites destroyed, they will stop believing that G-d is on their side. Result: no civilian casualties, no children in the line of fire, no false sense of righteousness, in fact, no war. Zero tolerance for stone throwing, for rockets, for kidnapping will mean that the state has achieved sovereignty. Living by Torah values will make us a light unto the nations who suffer defeat because of a disastrous morality of human invention. - Answer for the question "How Should Jews Treat Their Arab Neighbors?" for the "Moment" magazine. - I would like to clarify the answer published in my name in last month’s issue of Moment Magazine. First of all, the opinions published in my name are solely my own, and do not represent the official policy of any Jewish movement or organization. Additionally, my answer, as written, is misleading. It is obvious, I thought, that any neighbor of the Jewish people should be treated, as the Torah commands us, with respect and compassion. Fundamental to the Jewish faith is the concept that every human being was created in the image of G-d, and our sages instruct us to support the non-Jewish poor along with the poor of our own brethren. The sub-question I chose to address instead is: how should we act in time of war, when our neighbors attack us, using their women, children and religious holy places as shields. I attempted to briefly address some of the ethical issues related to forcing the military to withhold fire from certain people and places, at the unbearable cost of widespread bloodshed (on both sides!)—when one’s own family and nation is mercilessly targeted from those very people and places. Furthermore, some of the words I used in my brief comment were irresponsible, and I look forward to further clarifying them in a future issue. I apologize for any misunderstanding my words created.

From the Irish Roots Cafe Broadcast Network. Shownotes Irish Families Worldwide History and Genealogy. week 90 Among Todays Topics: 1) Connolly is the Irish Family Name of the day 2) County Antrim Ireland is the County of the week 3) Searching for Harkness and Abraham in Tipperary 4) Barack promises Mannion a pint in Ireland 5) Margaret Mary Ward has record number of grandchildren 6) Holocaust group protests Mormon baptisms 7) Coatbridge Irish Genealogy Project web page of the week. 8) Strokestown Famine Archive discovery. I’m Mike O’Laughlin, your host. Search all of our and podcasts for free ! Phone 816 256-3360 to leave your comments on my recorder…. TRY IT YOU’LL LIKE IT ! Timeline for this weeks audio broadcast: This Weeks Topics: 1:22 Notes from Mike: 3:00 Book of the Month: 5:34 The Magnificent Seven: 8:04 Irish Name of the Day: 10:00 Website of the Week: 15:36 Curious News and Notes: 17:24 Get All 4 of my Free Broadcasts online, click below: – Irish in America – – Irish Song – Notes This Week 1) Barack Obama promised 20 year old Peter Mannion, from Tuam, Co. Galway that he would visit Ireland and buy him a pint. This was done when Mannion was working on the presidential campaign. I think all of Ireland will take note if that promise is fulfilled ! The Irish Government has already asked him back to see his family roots in Moneygall, Co. Offaly. 2) Well, even though Christmas spending will be down everywhere this year – Ireland is still predicted to be the biggest spender in Europe, followed by England, and then by Spain. The biggest cuts in gifts : co-workers may not be getting anything this year….. 3) It seems that Holocaust survivors are saying that a 13 year agreement has been repeatedly broken by the Mormon church. It seems that Jewish holocaust victims are still being baptized by the LDS. ‘We ask you to respect us and our Judaism, just as we respect your religion” said the chairman of the American Gathering of Holocaust Survivors. This follows similar sentiments from the Catholic Church earlier this year, closing church records to the LDS, who wish to baptize everyone into their church it seems – with or without permission? ! Book of the Month ‘County Antrim, Ireland, genealogy and family history notes’. Here is a sample extract from this book: The 19th century birth index of Ireland finds the following families most numerous in County (Possible variant spellings after each name have been added) : -end of Irish Family History extract- County Antrim Families on the 4 Masters Map What families were in the county in earlier days ? This might provide a clue to the locations of your family today. Here are some of the families given on the Map in the History of Ireland by the 4 Masters: (Connellan translation. 2003, I.G.F.) E. = Earl, L.=Lord, C. = chieftain, P = Prince.: de Burgo, E. de Courcy, E. de Lacy, E. Mac Donnell, E. Mac Quillan, L. O’ Donnelan, L. O’ Flynn, L. O’ Kane, L. O’ Niell, L. -end of extract from The Annals of Ireland by the Four Masters- Coming Up Later in this episode Strokestown famine archives find Time to raise our eyes skywards, give thanks, and ask for help ! Here are todays “Magnificent Seven” : 1) New member Bonnie Connelly of Oceanside, California. searching for: John Connolly b. 1744, believed to be in Armagh, Ireland. Last known in Wilkes Co., North Carolina. 2) New member Irene Wilkinson of Derbyshire, United Kingdom. searching for: Harkness and Abraham families, mainly in Tipperary. 3) Ian Hurley of Jacksonville, Florida Your ‘Genealogy and Family History notes for Co. Limerick’ has shipped. 4) Sandra Hewlett of Oaks, PA. Your ‘County Armagh Genealogy and Family History Notes’ has shipped. 5) Martin J. Rogers of Taupo, New Zealand Your ‘County Cavan Genealogy and Family History Notes’ has shipped. 6) Michael I. Tormey of St. Petersburg, FL Your ‘Families of County Galway, Ireland’ has shipped. 7) Marion Johnson of Holstein, Ontario Canada Your ‘County Down Genealogy and Family History Notes’ has shipped. Check out our online search list at: Thanks to all of our members – without you these podcasts would not be possible – ! Irish Family Name of the Day: Todays family history in honor of member: Bonnie Connelly Searching for info on: John Connolly, see new member above. Related Spellings of the Name Conneely, Connolly, Conoly, Connoly, Conolly, Connally, Conolay Found in variant spelling groups: #314, #316, #317, #319, #2157. (Taken from the Master Guide to the Various Spellings of Irish Family Names http://www.irishroots.com/id4918.htm History of the Name Connelly The O’Connolly name is one of the top 30 names in all of Ireland. Several unrelated families are on record here. This family name is also often confused and interchanged with similar sounding names such as Coneely and Conly. The most famous family of the name was that of O’Conghaile of Co. Monaghan in Ulster. They were of the southern Ui Neill, one of the Four Tribes of Tara and Princes of Bregia in more ancient times. The O’Connollys of western Co. Cork in the province of Munster are more anciently of note in the old territory of O’Donovan there. The O’Connollys of Ui Maine, in the province of Connaught, are associated with county Galway today where the preferred spelling is In the 17th century ‘O’Connoly’ was a principal name of Monaghan; Connoly a principal name of Louth; and Connolay a principal name The arms of Conolly of Castletown, Co. Kildare are given in the Irish Book of Arms. They descend from the same line as William Conolly, 18th century speaker of the House of Commons in Ireland. J. G. Connolly was a Lt. in the 2nd Regt. of Corcorans Irish Legion of Civil War fame in America. copyright 2007, IGF, based in part upon The Book of Irish Families, great and small Irish Family Coats of Arms Here is some of the information given in the Irish Book of Arms 1) Yes, including Conolly of Castletown, County Kildare, with illustrated old black and white arms….. and O’Connolly is also The Free Master Index Search of Irish Names at Irishroots.com finds the family numerous times including the following examples : 1) Families of County Clare, Kerry, Dublin, Cork, Donegal…. 2) Mr. Connolly in Pynnars Survey of Ireland. 3) Connolly History several times in Annals of Ireland by the 4 Masters 4) M. Connolly and P. Connolly in Irish Families on the California Trail. 5) O’Connolly in ‘The History of the Clanna Rory’ families in Ireland. 6) Over 10 listings in the Periodical Index, including James C.; John; Michael….. 7) Birth Index of Ireland Website of the Week: Coatbridge Irish Genealogy Project (in the U.K.) The above is a site for : “This site is currently being updated with new family information. There are now approximately 260 entries obtained from Coatbridge Irish families in the ” Family Details ” section. The ” History ” section has also been updated. Please make use of the Message board if you are looking for information on your Coatbridge Irish relatives.” Since the 14th March 2005 until now(28th Feb 06), a sample of 200 people from Coatbridge with Irish ancestry, have completed a template requesting details of family name, county of origin, town/village of origin, year family arrived in Scotland, where settled in Scotland before arriving in Coatbridge, number of family branches in Coatbridge, stories/comments and if they still have family in Ireland. Top Counties represented in Coatbridge were: Donegal 19 % Down 9 % Tyrone 9 % Antrim 8.5 % Armagh 8 % Irish Roots Cafe Video of the Week: Annals of Ireland the Four Masters In this video I talk briefly about the Annals of Ireland by the 4 Masters. Curious News and Notes 1) The Strokestown Estate Famine archives are being restored and they contain information of interest to Irish Families. One document was uncovered showing that Mary Lenahan, of Elphin Street, Strokestown, County Roscommon received a meal on June 23, 1846. Mary Lenihan was the ancestor of the President of Ireland, Mary McAleese ! There are some 200 boxes being restored, hopefully to become available next year. For more information see the article in the Independent.ie, below: 2) Margaret Mary Ward, was born in Co. Galway and came to Salford in the UK in 1963. She had 15 children and 172 grandchildren. Laid to rest just recently, the hearse was covered by the Tri-color, and pulled by two grey horses. Her clan was said to be among the largest living in Britain, according to a story in the Irishtimes.com 3) If you are thinking of retiring in Ireland you might consider, Greystones in County Wicklow, which was given as one of the most livable communities in the world by the LivCom Awards. They won the gold medal for towns with a population of under 20,000, and mayor Sean Quirke was on hand for that. You might also take note of Clonakilty in County Cork which won a silver medal in 2006. 4) Lt. Commander Roberta O’Brien, of the Glen of Aherlow in Tipperary, just became the first commander of an Irish ship, the LE Aisling. 5) Dublin turned on its Christmas light 3 weeks early this year, on Nov. 9, hoping to bring out the shopping spirit, and Belfast turns on its lights on November 18. It all seems a bit early for me, and a bit commercial. I’ll be celebrating Christmas at Christmas time. Remember to send your comments by clicking the ‘contact’ link on our web page at www.irishroots.com or send by mail to our American address: The Irish Roots Cafe Kansas City, Missouri 64116 Leave your message or report on things in your part of the world, when you call my phone recorder at: Skype me at: IrishRootsCafe Members foot the bill so they get first priority – but we are open to all ! (By the way – a BIG thank you to all of our members !). ….and away…… ! Please do leave me feedback on iTunes, Click on the link below to get to my shows ! About Your Host A one of a kind resource, Mike is the most published author his field including numerous hard bound books; guides; newsletters; podcasts; videos and hundreds of articles. Today, he hosts the first weekly broadcast on Irish Family History at www.Irishroots.com The founder of the Irish Roots Cafe, he also publishes great works of history, including ‘The Annals of Ireland by the Four Masters’; and Keatings ‘History of Ireland’. He recently completed the Irish Families Project, a 34 book set on Irish Family History, published by the Irish Comments Off on Obama’s pint; Connolly; Antrim; Strokestown, Baptisms

Most Popular "Concentration Camp" Titles - Movies or TV - IMDb Rating - Instant Watch Options - In Theaters - On TV - Release Year 1. Shutter Island (2010) R | 138 min | Mystery, Thriller A U.S Marshal investigates the disappearance of a murderess who escaped from a hospital for the criminally insane. Votes: 781,297 | Gross: $127.97M 2. Schindler's List (1993) R | 195 min | Biography, Drama, History In Poland during World War II, Oskar Schindler gradually becomes concerned for his Jewish workforce after witnessing their persecution by the Nazis. Votes: 860,793 | Gross: $96.07M 3. X-Men (2000) PG-13 | 104 min | Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi Two mutants come to a private academy for their kind whose resident superhero team must oppose a terrorist organization with similar powers. Votes: 450,862 | Gross: $157.30M 4. X-Men: First Class (2011) PG-13 | 132 min | Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi In 1962, the United States government enlists the help of Mutants with superhuman abilities to stop a malicious dictator who is determined to start World War III. Votes: 516,234 | Gross: $146.41M 5. Life Is Beautiful (1997) PG-13 | 116 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance When an open-minded Jewish librarian and his son become victims of the Holocaust, he uses a perfect mixture of will, humor and imagination to protect his son from the dangers around their camp. Votes: 417,695 | Gross: $57.60M 6. District 9 (2009) R | 112 min | Action, Sci-Fi, Thriller An extraterrestrial race forced to live in slum-like conditions on Earth suddenly finds a kindred spirit in a government agent who is exposed to their biotechnology. Votes: 530,229 | Gross: $115.65M 7. Red Dawn (1984) PG-13 | 114 min | Action, Drama, War It is the dawn of World War III. In mid-western America, a group of teenagers bands together to defend their town, and their country, from invading Soviet forces. 8. The Boy in the Striped Pajamas (2008) PG-13 | 94 min | Drama, War Set during World War II, a story seen through the innocent eyes of Bruno, the eight-year-old son of the commandant at a concentration camp, whose forbidden friendship with a Jewish boy on the other side of the camp fence has startling and unexpected consequences. Votes: 131,645 | Gross: $9.03M 9. Son of Saul (2015) R | 107 min | Drama, Thriller, War In the horror of 1944 Auschwitz, a prisoner forced to burn the corpses of his own people finds moral survival upon trying to salvage from the flames the body of a boy he takes for his son. Votes: 20,067 | Gross: $1.78M 11. The Reader (2008) R | 124 min | Drama, Romance Post-WWII Germany: Nearly a decade after his affair with an older woman came to a mysterious end, law student Michael Berg re-encounters his former lover as she defends herself in a war-crime trial. Votes: 189,280 | Gross: $34.18M 12. The Crazies (2010) R | 101 min | Horror, Thriller About the inhabitants of a small Iowa town suddenly plagued by insanity and then death after a mysterious toxin contaminates their water supply. Votes: 92,979 | Gross: $39.10M 14. Sophie's Choice (1982) R | 150 min | Drama, Romance After spending time with his new neighbors, an aspiring writer realizes they are harboring deep secrets that will forever change him. 16. Tomorrow, When the War Began (2010) R | 103 min | Action, Adventure, Drama When their country is invaded and their families are taken, eight unlikely high school teenagers band together to fight. 17. The Night Porter (1974) R | 118 min | Drama After a chance meeting at a hotel in 1957, a Holocaust survivor and the Nazi officer who tortured her resume their sadomasochistic relationship. 18. Death Wish (1974) R | 93 min | Action, Crime, Drama A New York City architect becomes a one-man vigilante squad after his wife is murdered by street punks in which he randomly goes out and kills would-be muggers on the mean streets after dark. 19. The Believer (2001) R | 98 min | Drama A young Jewish man develops a fiercely anti-Semitic philosophy. Based on the factual story of a K.K.K. member in the 1960s who was revealed to be Jewish by a New York Times reporter. Votes: 30,241 | Gross: $0.41M 20. The Good German (2006) R | 105 min | Drama, Mystery, Thriller While in post-war Berlin to cover the Potsdam Conference, an American military journalist is drawn into a murder investigation which involves his former mistress and his driver. Votes: 21,444 | Gross: $1.30M 21. Good (2008) R | 96 min | Drama, Romance, War The rise of national socialism in Germany should not be regarded as a conspiracy of madmen. Millions of "good" people found themselves in a society spiralling into terrible chaos. A film about then, which illuminates the terrors of now. Votes: 5,638 | Gross: $0.02M 22. The Power of One (1992) PG-13 | 127 min | Drama The Power of One is an intriguing story of a young English boy named Peekay and his passion for changing the world. Growing up he suffered as the only English boy in an Afrikaans school. ... See full summary » Votes: 7,457 | Gross: $2.83M 23. The Grey Zone (2001) R | 108 min | Drama, History, War A Nazi doctor, along with the Sonderkommando, Jews who are forced to work in the crematoria of Auschwitz against their fellow Jews, find themselves in a moral grey zone. Votes: 8,602 | Gross: $0.51M 24. Naked Among Wolves (2015 TV Movie) Not Rated | 105 min | Drama, History, War Taking place at the Concentration camp Buchenwald at the end of March 1945, prisoner Hans Pippig discovers in a carrying case of an incoming prisoner a Jewish child. If reported the ... See full summary » 26. The Counterfeiters (2007) R | 98 min | Crime, Drama, War The story of the Operation Bernhard, the largest counterfeiting operation in history, carried out by Germany during WWII. Votes: 36,549 | Gross: $5.48M 27. The Keep (1983) R | 96 min | Horror Nazis are forced to turn to a Jewish historian for help in battling the ancient demon they have inadvertently freed from its prison. 29. Bent (1997) NC-17 | 105 min | Drama, History, Romance Max is gay and as such is sent to Dachau concentration camp under the Nazi regime. He tries to deny he is gay and gets a yellow label (the one for Jews) instead of pink (the one for gays). ... See full summary » Votes: 6,183 | Gross: $0.37M 31. The Diary of Anne Frank (1959) Approved | 180 min | Biography, Drama, Family Harrowing story of a young Jewish girl who, with her family and their friends, is forced into hiding in an attic in Nazi-occupied Amsterdam. 32. I Am Curious (Yellow) (1967) X | 121 min | Drama Lena, aged twenty, wants to know all she can about life and reality. She collects information on everyone and everything, storing her findings in an enormous archive. She experiments with ... See full summary » Votes: 2,800 | Gross: $20.24M 33. Jakob the Liar (1999) PG-13 | 120 min | Drama, War In 1944 Poland, a Jewish shop keeper named Jakob is summoned to ghetto headquarters after being caught out near curfew. While waiting for the German Kommondant, Jakob overhears a German ... See full summary » Votes: 12,570 | Gross: $4.96M 35. Shoah (1985) Not Rated | 566 min | Documentary, History, War Claude Lanzmann's epic documentary recounts the story of the Holocaust through interviews with witnesses - perpetrators as well as survivors. Votes: 5,732 | Gross: $0.02M 36. Remembrance (2011) 105 min | Drama, Romance, War Die Verlorene Zeit (Remembrance) depicts a remarkable love story that blossomed amidst the terror of a German concentration camp in 1944 Poland. This impossible passion fuels the courage of... See full summary » 37. The Young Lions (1958) Approved | 167 min | Action, Drama, War The destiny of three soldiers during World War II. The German officer Christian Diestl approves less and less of the war. Jewish-American Noah Ackerman deals with antisemitism at home and ... See full summary » 38. Lore (2012) Not Rated | 109 min | Drama, Romance, Thriller As the Allies sweep across Germany, Lore leads her siblings on a journey that exposes them to the truth of their parents' beliefs. An encounter with a mysterious refugee forces Lore to rely on a person she has always been taught to hate. Votes: 10,983 | Gross: $0.97M 39. Europa Europa (1990) R | 112 min | Drama, History, War A boy in Nazi Germany, trying to conceal that he is Jewish, joins the Hitler Youth. Votes: 11,953 | Gross: $5.58M 40. Lion of the Desert (1980) PG | 173 min | Biography, Drama, History In the Fascist Italy Pre-World War II of Benito Mussolini, the cruel General Rodolfo Graziani is directly assigned by Il Duce to fight in the colonial war in Libya to vanquish the Arab ... See full summary » 41. Amen. (2002) Unrated | 132 min | Biography, Crime, Drama During WWII SS officer Kurt Gerstein tries to inform Pope Pius XII about Jews being sent to extermination camps. Young Jesuit priest Riccardo Fontana helps him in the difficult mission to inform the world. Votes: 11,031 | Gross: $0.27M 42. The Odessa File (1974) PG | 130 min | Drama, Thriller Following the suicide of an elderly Jewish man, a journalist in possession of the man's diary investigates the alleged sighting of a former SS captain, who allegedly commanded a concentration camp during WWII. 43. Adam Resurrected (2008) R | 106 min | Drama, War In the aftermath of WWII, a former circus entertainer who was spared from the gas chamber becomes the ringleader at an asylum for Holocaust survivors. 44. Night and Fog (1955) Not Rated | 32 min | Documentary, Short, History The history of Nazi Germany's death camps of the Final Solution and the hellish world of dehumanization and death contained inside. 45. Anne Frank: The Whole Story (2001 TV Mini-Series) TV-14 | 120 min | Biography, Drama, War When the war began, she was only a little girl. When it ended, she was the voice of a generation... A compassionate and sensitive televisual portrait of the Holocaust's greatest diarist. 46. Escape from Sobibor (1987 TV Movie) 143 min | Drama, History, War During WWII, the death camp at Treblinka had an escape, causing the Commandant at a similar camp in Sobibor to vow that his camp would never experience the same thing. But those who were ... See full summary » 47. Eichmann (2007) 96 min | Biography, Drama, History Based upon the final confession of Adolf Eichmann, made before his execution in Israel as he accounts to Captain Avner Less, a young Israeli Police Officer, of his past as the architect of ... See full summary » 48. The Pawnbroker (1964) Approved | 116 min | Drama A Jewish pawnbroker, victim of Nazi persecution, loses all faith in his fellow man until he realizes too late the tragedy of his actions. 49. The Devil's Arithmetic (1999 TV Movie) 95 min | Drama, Fantasy, War A 16-year-old American girl with an apathetic view towards her Jewish family history finds herself pulled through time into 1941 to a small Polish village where the Nazi have just began their genocidal propaganda. 50. Death in Love (2008) R | 97 min | Drama, Romance, War The devastating legacy of a liaison between a concentration camp inmate and a Nazi doctor reflects on the lives of her sons.

...if that is your holiday of choice. We went to see Ushpizin last night - really liked the movie, but more of the same patriarchy run amok (this time among hasidic jews in Israel). The theater was full of the local jewish population (many of whom were new to the theater, which is one of our favorite places) which was fun, after the movie it had a "post-services social" feel to it as people hung out and chatted or called greetings to each other across the theater. As someone raised roman catholic, who has always done christmas, its kind of fun to see what non-christians do on this religious / secular / legal / commercial juggernaut. A bit of last minute present adornment (ribbons and bows) this morning, then a relaxing morning before we trek north to MA and the annual disgorgement of gifting that we call christmas in my family of origin. I'm celebrating the solstice and the return of light, and if the archetype of a divine child come as a symbol of peace and hope gets mixed in there somehow....well, so be it! My heart is large enough for multiple symbols, myths, and imagery.

|Address before 1945:||Emser Str. 42| |Address today:||Emser Str. 42/Pariser Str. 44, 10707 Berlin| Founded in 1893, the “Centralverein deutscher Staatsbürger jüdischen Glaubens” (or CV; Central Association of German Citizens of the Jewish Faith) understood itself as representing the interests of the patriotic liberal Jewish citizens of Germany. It was the largest Jewish organization in the empire. From its inception, it fought for legal equality for Jews and against antisemitism in German society. From the 1920s, the CV collected material on the anti-Jewish activities of the NSDAP. Many members of the Centralverein adhered to a private understanding of Jewish culture and religion, with the aim of avoiding discrimination by adapting to the majority society. From 1930, the Centralverein was headquartered at this location. Under pressure from the Nazis, the CV was forced to merge with other organizations to form the Reichsvertretung der deutschen Juden (Reich Deputation of the German Jews ) in September of 1933. Only in individual cases was it possible to continue to provide support to its embattled and persecuted members. After the organized pogroms of 9-10 November 1939, the CV was forced to dissolve under pressure from the Gestapo.

Not a sports fan? Read this anyway -- there's very little actual sports in here. It's the most wonderful time of the year -- the NFL Football playoffs, which this year have the good sense both to begin on my birthday and to include Brett Favre. That calls for a double-whammy Nonstop! Nonsportsmanlike Conduct! Weeklong Special Edition of the: NonSportsmanlike Conduct 100% Accurate, Never-Fail, Always-Right, Sure-Fire System For Picking The Playoff Winner. This system, you'll recall, is the one that totally, 100% accurately, predicted that the 2009 World Series would be the St. Louis Cardinals against artist Christian Faur, thereby proving that the system works, unlike such other notable systems that clearly do not work. (Windows, the U.S. Senate.) The NFL Playoffs are a huge deal, being the only playoffs in the only sport that I really care about (and since it's the only sport I really care about, it's also the only good sport, really.) So huge that I can't limit them to just one day, and that's why my Nonsportsmanlike Conduct! feature is spilling over from its usual unread Sunday position to all this week! For the remainder of this week, each day (hopefully!) I'll be putting up the only analysis you can rely on to determine who's going to win the Superbowl. I'll be using the patented system that has never once failed ever (results +/- 100%). To recap, that system ranks teams not on offense or defense or dumb stuff like that; what good is knowing, for example, that the Packers have the number one rated defense in the NFL and were 7-1 (by sheer luck, I'm assuming) over the last 8 games? How's that going to help me figure out who's going to win? No, I rely on far more accurate but underused indicators to make my never fail, 100% accurate predictions. Those indicators are, again, Best Mascot/Nickname, Craziest Fan, Politicians' Bets, and Weirdest Thing For Sale In Their Shop. Ordinarily, I award one point to the team that wins each category. I'm going to break from tradition, and make the 100% system more accurate and scientific, by instead, ranking each team in each category on a 1-5 scale, awarding five points for something truly great, and 1 point for something truly lame. At the end of the rankings, then, the AFC and NFC teams with the most points will be the Super Bowl teams, and whichever has the most points will be the winner of that matchup. Simple. Scientific. 100% Accurate. AND, for the first time ever, also, low in cholesterol. So this is not only good, but good for you. We'll begin with the two lowest-ranked teams in the playoffs. From the AFC, that's the New York Jets, coming in as a six seed wild card. From the NFC, that's obviously the Packers, who barely made the playoffs and will be lucky if they're allowed to suit up for the game. Let me just google that last sentence to make sure my assumptions are accurate... what? The Packers are not the lowest-ranked playoff team? How'd that happen? Apparently, Soon-To-Be-Fired Packers GM Ted Thompson, and coach Mike "Mike" McCarthy are the standard bearers in the Even a Blind Squirrel Federation. Whatever. So the lowest ranked team in the NFC is the Philadelphia Eagles. Let's apply the NC!100%AN-F,A-R, S-F SFPTPW to these two playoff hopefuls* (*note: they have no chance of winning. Sorry, New York & Philadelphia.) 1. Best Nickname/Mascot: The Jets have a timely nickname that ties into pop culture -- Jets -- and will no doubt enjoy a boost from the feel-good movie of 2009, Up In The Air. On that note, Sweetie and I saw Up In The Air on our date last Friday. Our date was one of the more romantic dates we've been on lately, which really says something about us, or romance, or dating, or about the way the Packers managed to somehow luck into a playoff spot. Or about all of those things. We arranged the date by getting The Boy to babysit, in exchange for letting him have a 2 a.m. curfew on New Year's Eve. That, on reflection, only guaranteed we'd get babysitting by someone too tired to actually take care of the Babies!, so to be on the safe side, we also timed our date to take place mostly during the Babies!' nap time. Once Mr F and Mr Bunches were safely locked in their room (note that I don't say "sleeping," since they never sleep), we headed out. First stop: Panera, where The Boy works. We went there for lunch, and to use the Internet, a move that was made necessary by the death of our laptop the morning before. When our laptop died, we were left without a computer in our house, which posed serious problems because Sweetie couldn't check her email, and couldn't keep up with celebrity gossip. It also meant that we couldn't actually order a new computer, because we do that through Dell over the Internet, and our old Dell computer was down. Middle has a laptop, though, and she has wireless internet access -- but not through our account. So we needed someplace with wifi, and we chose Panera, where The Boy works, because it not only has free wireless Internet but also offers french onion soup and free soda refills. We whiled away most of two hours there, alternating between me reading my Kindle and Sweetie getting caught up on celebrity gossip, and Sweetie reading her book while I ordered our new tiny 'puter. With that done, we then headed off for our date, getting to the movie theater to see Up In The Air just as previews were starting -- so late that we had to sit way up front and look at the screen from just below it. Towering, looming images of George Clooney notwithstanding, the movie was excellent -- but it was not, as it turns out, the "feel good" movie of the year, even though the ads made it seem like it would be. It also involved Omaha, Nebraska, a lot, which counts against it a little. Also, the movie involved jets, with a small j, because most of the characters fly on them all the time. On that basis, I'm going to give the Jets a 3 for their nickname. Scientific, isn't it? And, because I've been rambling on, I'm not going to spend much time on the Eagles. Let's just give them a 2, because eagles are boring, but double it out of patriotism because eagles are our national symbol. But then let's take away a half-point because Pennsylvania has an "official state electric locomotive," and that's a dumb thing to make an official state symbol out of. So, so far, it's: 2. Craziest Fan: As always, we go to Youtube for this. Searching for crazy Jets fan gets us this guy: That, I can only assume, is the world's ONLY out-of-shape anti-semitic dirty-joke telling superhero. Let's give it up for Jets Man! (Note: Jewish people, and people who aren't anti-Semitic, need not give it up for Jets Man.) Who would win in a fight, though, between Jets Man and the number one result on Youtube for crazy Eagles fan? I give you... EAGLES MAN! I like the scream at the end, because with that, the video answers the question: What's Howard Dean been doing with himself? Jets Man is crazy, so he gets 5, but then I have to subtract 15 for being anti-Semitic. Eagles Man earns four: one for stealing the Lombardi Trophy, one for his cape, and 2 for heading up the DNC. 3. Politicians' Bets. You know what? I don't like this category. It's dumb. Politicians' bets are always dumb, because politicians are dumb. If they had anything useful to say or do, they'd not be in politics. Useful people don't go into politics; useful people get jobs and make money and help people out. Politicians, on the other hand, are the kind of people who do well in the Iowa Caucuses, then drop out of sight until they resurface wearing a green cape and yelling Whoo! So I'm eliminating this category. Instead, I'll replace it with Best Name On The Roster. This indicator is a follow-up of my long-held theory that the best quarterbacks are those with the best names, and by best names, I mean two simple criteria: One-syllable, manly first name, and strong-sounding last name. The closer a quarterback comes to those ideals, the better that quarterback is: Joe Montana: Perhaps the best quarterback name ever, and winner of not only five Superbowls, but also now a rodeo rider and assistant screenwriter for the hit TV series Two and A Half Men (uncredited.) Terry Bradshaw: weak first name, but the last name sounds burly: like Broad Shoulders. You can do the rest of the work to determine how good your favorite quarterback is. But the theory is accurate, and explains how Trent Dilfer won a Superbowl, why Matt Hasselbeck might yet, and why Ryan Fitzpatrick never will. I'm expanding that out to pick the Best Name On A Team's Roster, which I will do using the entirely-objective system of Whichever name I kind of like. From the Jets' roster, I was tempted to go with former first-round pick D'Brickashaw Ferguson, on the scientific, objective basis of "I like a name with an apostrophe in it," but then I saw Chauncey Washington, a running back on the Jets whose career stats with New York show that he's never carried the ball for them. Not only that, but Chauncey is the Man With No Country -- his official team bio is blank. That led me to develop some sympathy for Chauncey, and to hope that this weekend, in the Jets' only playoff game this year, he'll at least get one or two carries in what's bound to be a losing effort. That, in turn, led me to wonder whether growing up as a Chauncey made him tougher because of all the teasing he probably got as a kid; kids still tease each other over names, weight, height, glasses, and every other thing, right? If I had to get teased for being named Pagel, (wondering how they teased me? It rhymes with bagel. If you don't think a tasty bread-like treat can also be an insult, then you were never a kid), then kids should also have to get teased for being Chauncey. That, in turn, made me remember that one episode of Friends where Chandler tried to be friends with Monica's dad, but Monica's dad thought Chandler's name was Chauncey, and then Chandler sat on Monica's dad's (naked) lap in the steam room, which, on reflection, was actually a very risque storyline for a sitcom that aired early in the evening. I don't want to put a picture of that in here, so I'll settle for a screen capture of the time Jennifer Aniston dressed up as Princess Leia: And not that I should know this, or ever make use of the site, but there's a whole website devoted to Princess Leia's metal bikini. I just thought I'd share that for you, and mention that I know what I want from Sweetie for my birthday. So, Chauncey is the best name on the Jets' roster, and I'll award him a 4, or one point for every time he's carried the ball in the NFL. The Eagles' choice was a little easier. While I was tempted to go with Defensive End Victor Abiamiri, because first, who's named Victor anymore, and, second, his last name sounds like it might mean something in some other fake, non-English language, so his name, translated, might be something like Victor "Looking Into The Future" or some such, I was quickly distracted by tackle King Dunlap, whose name outranked even Eagles' cornerback Macho Harris. I wanted to go with royalty as the best name. The only other people I know named after actual royal positions are Prince, Prince Albert, and the guy across from the courthouse who insists that I call him Viceroy and crosses the street to talk to me. But then I noted that there are not one, but two "Quintins" on the Eagles' roster. And not only that, but they both play safety -- so the Eagles are the only team ever in history to have two safeties named Quintin (prove me wrong! I dare you!). On a hunch, I checked to see what secret, fate-defining meaning the name Quintin might have, and I learned that the hidden meaning of Quintin is... it comes from the name Quentin. Quentin, in turn, means... the fifth. That probably is symbolic of something, I'm sure. I'll give Quintin five points; who am I to argue with a website set up to tell me the meaning of names? 4. Weirdest Thing For Sale In Their Shop. The Eagles' official store has a category entitled Novelties, and under that, something called Eagles Forest. I clicked on that and found the Eagles Forest Tree in Neshaminy State Park . To my disappointment, you can't buy an Eagles Tree and have it shipped to you, so, Sweetie, you're not getting that for Valentine's Day. Instead, you can, for the low-low price of $61.99, plant a tree in Eagles Forest! The idea is to offset the Eagles' greenhouse gas emissions, and, if you buy a tree to do that, you'll get "a card acknowledging the purchase." In 2-4 weeks. While it's pretty obvious this concept doesn't work, I'm going to pick it for the Eagles anyway, and also lament that I didn't know about this in time for the Nongift! Nonguide!. I can only picture this exchange between two Eagles' fans in the stands of whatever stadium the Eagles play in: Fan 1: (Pointing to his own jersey) Whoooo!! WHOOOO!! I love the Eagles. You can tell by my jersey that I am wearing. Whoooo!! (Looks to fan to his right, who's wearing regular clothes.) Don't you love the Eagles, man! Whoooo!! Fan 2: Um, yeah. I do. Can you keep it down a little? Fan 1: Whooo!! No can do, man! I love the Eagles! If you love them, why aren't you wearing an officially licensed replica jersey with an NFL-approved name that doesn't offend anyone? Fan 2: I thought about doing that, but instead decided to help reduce the Eagles' carbon footprint by sponsoring a tree in the Eagles forest, hopefully reducing the number of greenhouse gases by nearly a ton over my lifetime, and preventing the polar ice caps from melting and flooding the eastern seaboard, including probably Philadelphia, which the author of this blog is pretty sure is kind of close to the Atlantic Ocean. Fan 1: Um... Whooo!! Go Eagles!! (Passes out.) From the Jets' pro shop, we get... nothing, because they don't have an official pro shop. You can, though, buy a woman's New York Jets' thong on eBay for only $7.99. This guy, in fact, is wearing one: And I've got all that money left over from not buying an Eagles tree... I'll give the Eagles five, and the Jets zero for not having a pro-shop. So the final tallies for these two teams is: I'll look at the five seeds tomorrow. Until then, group photo!

Atlas Obscura recently re-posted an article, Remembering When Americans Picnicked in Cemeteries. Author Jonathan Kendall wrote, “Since many municipalities still lacked proper recreational areas, many people had full-blown picnics in their local cemeteries… One of the reasons why eating in cemeteries become a “fad,” as some reporters called it, was that epidemics were raging across the country: Yellow fever and cholera flourished, children passed away before turning 10, women died during childbirth. Death was a constant visitor for many families, and in cemeteries, people could “talk” and break bread with family and friends, both living and deceased.” Picnics in cemeteries are not news to archaeologists. Excavations in cemeteries often turn up soda bottles, alcohol bottles, toys, and bullets. Yes, bullets. In 1999, Chicora Foundation archaeologists mapped Colonial Park cemetery with a penetrometer survey (a penetrometer measures soil compaction). Their main goal was to map unmarked graves (an astonishing 8,678 unmarked graves were found in addition to the 560 marked graves). They also conducted a small excavation and found many late-1800s artifacts from citizens enjoying the park including lamp parts, soda and alcohol glass bottle fragments, toys, pipes, and shell casings and bullets. Few clothing artifacts or elaborate coffin hardware was found, so the burials were probably simple, shrouds and simple wood coffins. Two eighteenth century Jewish Cemeteries sit behind Esther Garrison Elementary School on Jones Street. The Levi Sheftall Cemetery was the subject of archaeological investigation in 1990. No graves were excavated, but accumulated soil around the headstones was excavated, and the cemetery was mapped. Lots of children’s marbles were found as well as bullets, ranging in size from 18th century lead musket balls to a modern .45 caliber automatic. The cemetery picnicking trend ended around the 1920s, as more public parks were established and the death rate dropped, leading to less need for cemetery visitation. Kendall concludes, “Today, more than 100 years since Americans debated the trend, you’d be hard-pressed to find many cemeteries—especially those in big cities—with policies or available land that allow for picnics. Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn, for example, has a no picnic rule.”

It was repulsive viewing: the sight of a Jewish man gleefully suggesting that he had played a part in another man’s death.Even sadder, the people who wrote this op-ed are leftists themselves: Ezra Nawi recounted a story of a Palestinian man who tried to cut land deals with settlers and is now dead. Nawi, a towering figure on Israel’s activist left, said: “I have a hand in this,” and appeared to try to put the wheels in motion for another Palestinian man to head toward this same fate. Nawi’s words and actions, captured on hidden cameras, are the scandal of the month here in Israel. The activist left should have proved its moral compass by condemning what it saw, by saying that it was beyond the pale, by realizing that once in a while it’s OK to react to something like the rest of the country. But it failed. Now, before I continue I want to say that the current campaign by the Israeli government against the Israeli activist left leaves me uncomfortable, and in this column last month I criticized rightist politicians for their obsessive attempts to delegitimize Breaking the Silence, which is perhaps the most controversial of all the groups of the activist left."Obsessive"? What's so obsessive about their concerns that isn't so about leftists whose only interest is in providing the PLO with enough territory to commit jihadism? And who turn their backs on Islamic child bridemongering? I'm not sure what this dummy's point is here, but it's bottom of the barrel. He's got to consider that something's rotten in the leftists of today who obsess themselves with political issues like these, and that the time has come to start refraining from political activism. It really isn't healthy for anybody. The courts have made it official now that Nawi was arrested for his repulsive crime. If the author of that otherwise slapdash column in New York is smart, he'll distance himself from "Rabbis for Human Rights" and not call them "esteemed". Because they're not.

Buckingham Palace, Big Ben, London Eye, The Shard – everyone, even the people who have never visited London know at least 2 out of these 4 London tourist destinations. During peak seasons, they are packed with tourists from all over the world, over 21 million of them! And this usually means fighting for the best views with other tourists during peak travel seasons. Despite being the die-hard Francophile that I am, I love London! I have been blessed to have jobs that allowed me to do lots of international trips, and while I was running social media at Dolby I made several trips to the London office. Each time I extended my trip so I could enjoy some of the city. I have eaten my way through with quintessentially British dishes with meals at great foodie locations, including some very memorable fish and chips, and I’ve done an amazing walking tour as well. But you know what I didn’t do? Any of the first 4 things in the opening of this post! If you are looking for a more local experience, some less well-known destinations within the city will keep you in awe. So are you ready to see a different side of London? If yes, then here are 4 unique locations you must visit. The Waterloo Vaults Also known as The Vaults, this hidden gem is an ideal place to visit, especially for art and alternative lifestyle lovers. Even though it is located under the Waterloo Station on Leake Street, there is more to it than you think. You can find The Vaults in a graffiti tunnel, but don’t worry; it is entirely safe. Be sure to check it out anytime you visit London because the artwork is always changing. Feeling inspired? You can grab some painting essentials and leave your mark there. This destination is open to the public at all times. You know me, I am all about food and Pop Brixton has some of the best and tastiest food stands in London, but they also have pop-up clothing stores, hipster bars, art galleries, and unconventional exercise classes; it is the best destination for eccentric visitors. Pop Brixton aims to provide support to small businesses; therefore, there is a lot of creativity, and you might find something new anytime you visit. Spitalfields and Brick Lane If you are a fan of history and mysteries (I am!), this location is perfect for you, as that was Jack the Ripper’s territory during the 1800s. You can even take a tour and walk in the footsteps of one of England’s famous serial killers. There are also other attractions, such as the location where Braveheart was tortured. But, it is not all gruesome. (More food!) Brick Lane has some of London’s most delicious curry houses, as well as the best-salted beef bagels from the numerous Jewish delis on the street. Round up your visit by stopping at Spitalfields to purchase stunning handcrafted artifacts and wares. This destination is perfect for tourists looking for a slice of Venice while in London and allows you to kill two birds with one stone. Dubbed Little Venice, this location consists of tree-lined canals that span from Hyde Park to Warwick Avenue. When you take a walk along the canal, you will see brightly-colored boats dotted along the waterway, as well as popular cafes and tearooms. There are even some cafe boats available. Imagine sipping tea or having lunch on a canal boat. Sounds incredible, right? You can also find boats that offer accommodations, sleeping on a boat in the middle of London? Yes, please! Are you planning a trip to London someday? If so, head on over to these local spots for a more adventurous and unique experience. Before your trip, check the existing CDC and State Department advisories, as well as UK Entry guidance for travel to London. You might also ensure that you have the required documents for travel. If not, do not hesitate to contact an immigration lawyer or immigration solicitors as they would say on the other side of the pond, to advise and assist with any tricky visa issues. You can find more tips and tricks for travel here. Like it? PIN it!

By Joel C. Rosenberg A new headline in the Jerusalem Post reads: “Vatican synod calls for end to Israel’s ‘occupation’: At conference on Christians in the Middle East, US Melkite archbishop says: ‘There is no longer a chosen people.’” With all due respect, the Vatican is wrong on this issue. The entire Bible — from Genesis to Revelation — makes crystal clear again and again the Lord’s love for the Jewish people, His decision to choose Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and their descendants for His very own, and His eternal promise to give the Holy Land to the Jewish people. As such, it is the duty of all true followers of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ to bless Israel and reaffirm her fundamental legitimacy and right to the Land. Yes, we should bless and love the Palestinians, as well, because our Lord Jesus said as a Jew living in Israel, “Love your neighbor,” and, “Love your enemies.” But we should never accept the false teaching that God has rejected the Jewish people or rescinded His promises to the nation of Israel. That simply is not Biblical. In Genesis chapter 12:1-3, the Lord makes it clear He has chosen Abram to “make a great nation” and the Lord says to him, “I will bless you and make your name great; and so you shall be a blessing; and I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.” In Genesis 13:14-18, the Lord specifically takes Abraham to the land we now call Israel and said, “Now lift up your eyes and look from the place where you are (the Jordan Valley), northward and southward and eastward and westward; for all the land which you see, I will give it to you and to your descendants forever.” Doesn’t “forever” mean forever? This promise is reaffirmed to Isaac, and later to Jacob, whose name the Lord changes to “Israel.” For example, in Deuteronomy 7:6-8, the Lord says to the children of Israel, “The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for His own possession out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth. The Lord did not set His love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any of the peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples, but because the Lord loved you and kept the oath which He swore to your forefathers.” In Genesis 48:3-4, Jacob tells his son Joseph, “God Almighty appeared to me at Luz in the land of Canaan and blessed me, and He said to me, ‘Behold, I will make you fruitful and numerous, and I will make you a company of peoples, and will give this land to your descendants after you an everlasting possession.” Doesn’t everlasting mean everlasting? Interestingly, the Apostle Paul prophetically anticipated that the Christians in Rome would one day think that God would reject the Jewish people and His promises to them because many Jews rejected Jesus as the Messiah. So Paul wrote this in his letter to the Romans, chapter 11, verse 1 and 2: “I say then, God has not rejected His people, has He? May it never be! For I too am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. God has not rejected His people whom He foreknew.”The New Testament again and again affirms the Lord’s love for the Jewish people and for the nation of Israel. Indeed, in the Book of Revelation, we specifically see the nation of Israel regathered and playing a key role in the End Times. God defends Israel. God fights for Israel against her enemies. God blesses Israel and the Jewish people. And then the Lord Jesus Christ Himself comes with His saints to reign from Jerusalem. To deny such truths is to deeply and fundamentally misunderstand the Word of God. May I encourage you, brothers and sisters, to share this message with others. Be kind towards the Catholic leaders. Let us show them the mistakes they are making, but do so in love. Let us also teach followers of Jesus Christ around the world the Lord’s deep love and compassion for the Jewish people, and His desire that they — and all people — come to faith in Messiah Jesus. At the same time, please prayerfully consider becoming involved in The Joshua Fund to bless Israel and her neighbors in the name of Jesus in real and practical ways. And please prayerfully consider coming to Israel and the Epicenter Conference in Israel next May. Thank you, and God bless you. Introduction to the Biblical Covenants: Land Covenant - SpiritandTruth.org (Tony Garland) Vatican backs synod's criticism against Israel - YnetNews Mideast Bishops Call for End to Israel's 'Occupation' - CBN News The Vatican reverses into a darker age - Spectator.co.uk (Melanie Phillips) Catholic Church: Christ Nullified God's Promises to the Jews - BPB (David Hocking) Epicenter 2.0: Why the Current Rumblings in the Middle East Will Change Your Future - Joel C. Rosenberg (Book)

Licence, Registration And Accreditation Fees Relevant, timely and evidence-based information for Australian health professionals and consumers. Keep track of medicines and access important health info any time and anywhere, especially in emergencies. Building and trades forms, publications and reportsBuilding in hazardous areas Determinations List of Determinations under the Building Act 2016 and approved by the Director of Building Control, Tasmania which relate to building in hazardous areas. Health and safety information has been posted and hand sanitizer is now available in all city buildings and workspaces. In total, 900 bottles of hand sanitizer have been ordered for use in city vehicles and shared areas. Opioid therapy for CNCP should be initiated as a trial in accordance with clinical guidelines and after a comprehensive biopsychosocial assessment has established a cause for the pain and the appropriateness of opioid therapy for the patient . The expected outcome of therapy should be discussed with the patient before commencing opioid treatment, with agreement to discontinue treatment if these objectives are not met. Opioids should be used with caution and with close monitoring in these patients (see Section 4.2 Dose and Method of Administration). In general, tapering should involve a dose reduction of no more than 10 percent to 25 percent every 2 to 4 weeks (see Section 4.2 Dose and Method of Administration). If the patient is experiencing increased pain or serious withdrawal symptoms, it may be necessary to go back to the previous dose until stable before proceeding with a more gradual taper. Neuroadaptation of the opioid receptors to repeated administration of opioids can produce tolerance and physical dependence. Tolerance may occur to both the desired and undesired effects of the opioid. The patient’s condition should be reviewed regularly and the dose tapered off slowly if opioid treatment is no longer appropriate . The risk of respiratory depression is greater with the use of high doses of opioids, especially high potency and modified release formulations, and in opioid naïve patients. Initiation of opioid treatment should be at the lower end of the dosage recommendations with careful titration of doses to achieve effective pain relief. NASP offers both Inactive(e.g., medical or maternity leave) andRetiredNCSP categories for those who are eligible. Urinalysis using a dipstick reagent strip is an effective screening tool to assess the health status of an individual and detect some diseases and infections. It is important that professionals understand methods for collecting urine, limit the risk of contamination by using reagent strips correctly and accurately interpret results. Glucose in the urine can occur in pregnancy or patients taking corticosteroids. Use of codeine containing products is contraindicated in women during breast feeding (see Section 4.6 Fertility, Pregnancy and Lactation, Use in lactation). Severe respiratory disease, acute respiratory disease and respiratory depression. Aged between years in whom respiratory function might be compromised, including post tonsillectomy and/or adenoidectomy for obstructive sleep apnoea (see Section 4.3 Contraindications; Section 4.4 Special Warnings and Precautions for Use, Paediatric use). For the temporary relief of acute moderate pain and inflammation in patients over the age of 12 years. In accordance with DHEC recommendations, pools will be limited to 20 percent capacity and, as such, only one swimmer will be allowed per lane with a 45-minute time limit. Thorough hand washing and sanitation will be built into camp rotations and required multiple times daily. Parents are asked to review handwashing techniques with their children prior to the start of the summer session. The writer does in-depth research and writes your paper to produce high-quality content. The order passes through our editing department after which it is delivered to you. We have a team of professional writers experienced in academic and business writing. Most of them are native speakers and PhD holders able to take care of any assignment you need help with. Charleston Police and Fire have each created contingency plans to ensure public safety is maintained at all times, even if staffing levels are reduced significantly due to illness or quarantine. In order to reduce the risk of Coronavirus transmission in the city of Charleston, all city permitted tours will be suspended until further notice, beginning at noon today. Careful calculation of equianalgesic doses is required when changing opioids or switching from immediate release to modified release formulations, together with consideration of pharmacological differences between opioids. Consider starting the new opioid at a reduced dose to account for individual variation in response. All patients receiving opioids should be routinely monitored for signs of misuse and abuse. Opioids are sought by people with addiction and may be subject to diversion. Similar to the West Ashley Farmers Market, this essentials-only format will feature farmer and grower vendors exclusively, including R. Vendors and patrons will be required to wear masks and maintain social distancing throughout the event, and to follow all other CDC protocols related to COVID-19. Tonight, Charleston City Council will consider additional emergency measures to protect the community against the spread of COVID-19. This morning, as part of the city of Charleston’s flu shot program for city employees, Mayor John Tecklenburg received his flu shot and encouraged citizens throughout the Lowcountry to do the same. Mayor Tecklenburg’s remarks came on the same day that South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control Epidemiologist Dr. Linda Bell also asked citizens to celebrate at home to prevent an additional surge. This suspension is subject to limited exceptions, including bond hearings and emergency matters like restraining orders, orders of protection and vacating of bench warrants. The affected employees have self-quarantined, and the city is in the process of conducting a thorough contact tracing effort to determine if additional employees will require testing before being allowed to return to work. The affected employee has self-quarantined, and the city is conducting a thorough contact tracing effort to determine if additional employees will require testing before being allowed to return to work. The city of Charleston’s other pools and summer day camps are not affected by this temporary closure and will continue to operate normally. 2 Dose And Method Of Administration The use of antidepressant drugs does not relieve and may exacerbate adrenocorticoid-induced mental disturbances. Kenacort-A 40 Injection has an extended duration of effect which may be permanent, or sustained over a period of several weeks. Studies indicate that following a single intramuscular dose of 60 to 100 mg triamcinolone acetonide, adrenal suppression occurs within 24 to 48 hours and then gradually returns to normal, usually in 30 to 40 days. This finding correlates closely with the extended duration of therapeutic action achieved with the drug. Naturally occurring glucocorticoids , which also have salt-retaining properties, are used as replacement therapy in adrenocortical deficiency states. Their synthetic analogs are primarily used for their potent anti-inflammatory effects in disorders of many organ systems. Triamcinolone acetonide may mask signs of infections and enhance dissemination of the infecting organism. Hence, all patients receiving triamcinolone acetonide should be watched for evidence of inter-current infection. Should infection occur, vigorous, appropriate anti-infective therapy should be initiated. Taking Other Medicines Upper GI X-rays are desirable in patients with an ulcer history or significant dyspepsia. The initial dose of Kenacort-A 40 Injection may vary from 2.5 to 60 mg per day depending on the specific disease entity being treated (see Section 4.2 Dose and Method of Administration). In situations of less severity, lower doses will generally suffice while in selected patients higher initial doses may be required. Usually the parenteral dosage ranges are one-third to one-half the oral dose given every 12 hours. However, in certain overwhelming, acute, life threatening situations, administration of dosages exceeding the usual doses may be justified and may be in multiples of the oral dosages. Adequate studies to demonstrate the safety of Kenacort-A 40 Injection by intraturbinal, subconjunctival, subtenons, retrobulbar, and intraocular injection have not been performed. Respiratory depression, excitability, convulsions, hypotension and loss of consciousness may occur with large codeine overdose. Central nervous system depression, including respiratory depression, may develop but is unlikely to be severe unless other sedative agents have been co-ingested, including alcohol, or the overdose is very large. The suggested initial dose is 60 mg, injected deeply into the gluteal muscle. Bilirubin is a chemical produced when red blood cells are broken down. It is transported in the blood to the liver, where it is processed and excreted into the gut as a constituent of bile. In the gut, bacteria acts on the bilirubin to transform it into urobiligen. Bilirubin in the urine may be an indicator of a breakdown of red blood cells. It may not be effectively removed by the liver, which may suggest liver disease or a problem with drainage of bile into the gut, such as gall stones. Blood in the urine can be indicative of kidney disease; inflammatory lesions of the urinary tract ; renal damage; or kidney/renal stones. However, if the patient is an extensive or ultra-rapid metabolizer there is an increased risk of developing side effects of opioid toxicity even at commonly prescribed doses. These patients convert codeine into morphine rapidly resulting in higher than expected serum morphine levels. General symptoms of opioid toxicity include confusion, somnolence, shallow breathing, small pupils, nausea, vomiting, constipation, and lack of appetite. In severe cases this may include symptoms of circulatory and respiratory depression, which may be life-threatening and very rarely fatal. Children are particularly susceptible due to their immature airway anatomy. Do you have an urgent order that you need delivered but have no idea on how to do it? All you have to do is chat with one of our online agents and get your assignment taken care of with the little remaining time. We have qualified academic writers who will work on your agent assignment to develop a high quality paper for you. Updates include changes to information for all staff and the management of safeguarding . Updates include changes to information for all staff and the management of safeguarding and a new section covering child on child sexual violence and sexual harassment . Citizen Services Desk (For recommendations on injection techniques, see Section 4.2 Dose and Method of Administration). Due to the significantly higher incidence of local atrophy when the material is injected into the deltoid area, this injection site should be avoided in favour of the gluteal area. Only very unusual circumstances would warrant injection into the deltoid area. Kenacort-A 40 Injection is not recommended for extradural, epidural or any other route of administration which is not listed, see Section 4.1 Therapeutic Indications. However, if you experience any side effects after being given it, immediately telephone your doctor or call the Poisons Information Centre for advice. However, in circumstances where a breastfeeding mother requires codeine therapy, breastfeeding should be suspended and alternative arrangement should be made for feeding the infant for any period during codeine treatment. Breastfeeding mothers should be told how to recognize signs of high morphine levels in themselves and their babies. For example, in a mother, symptoms include extreme sleepiness and trouble caring for the baby. In the baby, symptoms include signs of increased sleepiness , difficulty breastfeeding, breathing difficulties, or limpness. Your pharmacist and doctor have more information on medicines to avoid or be careful with while taking NUROFEN PLUS. If there is a need to consider NUROFEN PLUS while you are breast-feeding, your pharmacist or doctor will discuss with you the benefits and risks of using it. Ibuprofen, codeine or other opioids, How long does it take for Delta-10 gummies to kick in? or any of the ingredients listed at the end of this leaflet. NUROFEN PLUS tablets contain the active ingredients Ibuprofen and Codeine phosphate. Ibuprofen belongs to a family of medicines called non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs . These medicines work by relieving pain and/or inflammation and fever. For treatment of joints, the usual intra-articular injection technique, as described in standard textbooks, should be followed. If an excessive amount of synovial fluid is present in the joint, some, but not all, should be aspirated to aid in the relief of pain and to prevent undue dilation of the corticosteroid. Prior to withdrawal, inspect suspension for clumping or granular appearance . Use Of Opioids In Chronic Long Patients should be followed closely for signs and symptoms of respiratory depression and sedation. Patients and their caregivers should be made aware of these symptoms. Patients and their caregivers should also be informed of the potential harms of consuming alcohol while taking Nurofen Plus. This are our top writers and thus they are often selected when a client needs their paper to be written in a sophisticated language. Best available This refers to a group of writers who are good at academic writing, have great writing skills but are new in our team of writers. This group of writers have passed strict English tests plus tests from their fields of specialization. This writers are also assigned a skilled mentor who guides them in mastering their skills faster to help them become even better writers. If it is an academic paper, you have to ensure it is permitted by your institution. In addition, public comments will be taken in writing and during the public input period of hearings, during the times allocated under normal procedures. During the hearing, administrators may open public input to individuals who will have their microphone enabled by the administrator, and participants will state their name and give input just as a regular in-person hearing. The city of Charleston remains at OPCON 1, while today, at a press conference, Charleston Mayor John Tecklenburg stressed the importance of complying with Governor Henry McMaster’s “Home or Work” order. Mary Murray Drive in Hampton Park will be closed to all vehicular traffic from 10 a.m. Daily as a temporary measure intended to allow more flexibility for social distances for exercise and recreation purposes. Restrooms, stationary playground and exercise equipment, dog runs, docks, piers and areas that encourage close contact sports will remain closed until health officials determine that those areas can be safely used. Thus you can be sure to get an original plagiarism free paper from us. Further detailed information about sexual violence and sexual harassment can be found at sexual violence and sexual harassment between children in schools and colleges. Codeine is rapidly distributed to skeletal muscles, kidneys, liver, gastrointestinal tract, lungs, spleen and brain. It crosses the placenta and is distributed in low levels in breast milk. Codeine is well absorbed from the gastrointestinal tract and peak plasma concentrations are reached one hour after oral administration. Due to the current rise of Covid-19 cases across the state, beginning Tuesday, January 4, 2022 all visitors to city offices and buildings will be asked to wear masks while inside, regardless of vaccination status. All city employees will also be required to wear masks in indoor common areas and when unable to socially distance from others. A firm foundation in the benefits and characteristics of good health and wellbeing will enable teachers to talk about isolation, loneliness, unhappiness, bullying and the negative impact of poor health and wellbeing. To qualify for national certification, a school psychologist must meet NASP’s established credentialing standards. Pupils should be taught how to judge when they, or someone they know, needs support and where they can seek help if they have concerns. This should include details on which adults in school (e.g. school nurses), and externally can help. This starts with pupils being taught about the benefits and importance of daily exercise, good nutrition and sufficient sleep, and giving pupils the language and knowledge to understand the normal range of emotions that everyone experiences. Please note that while theNASP 2020 Standardshave been approved, the NCSP Board will continue using the current rubrics that reflect the2010 credentialing standardsfor all portfolio submissions for the NCSP through and including 2023. All submissions from May 2024 and thereafter must submit using the new rubrics that reflect the 2020 standards. Diluted urine could occur in an individual who has high fluid intake; diabetes insipidus; hypercalcaemia; endocrine disorders, such as kidney disease; or failed to produce anti-diuretic hormone. Corticosteroids may increase blood glucose; diabetic control should be monitored, especially when corticosteroids are initiated, discontinued, or changed in dosage. Intra-articular injection of a corticosteroid may produce systemic as well as local effects. The inadvertent injection of the suspension into the soft tissues surrounding a joint is not harmful, but may lead to the occurrence of systemic effects, and is the most common cause of failure to achieve the desired local results. Although therapy with Kenacort-A 40 Injection will ameliorate symptoms, it is in no sense a cure and the hormone has no effect on the cause of the inflammation. Many city staff members will transition to working remotely effective Monday, with departments unable to telecommute dividing crews into A and B teams that will alternate workweeks, so as to reduce contact with other city staff. Today, the city of Charleston shifted to OPCON-1 and closed all remaining offices and facilities, including recreation centers, to the public. Practicing good social distancing when we have to go out for essential trips to the grocery store or the pharmacy is the best medicine we have to protect ourselves and each other. And, finally, there are the numbers with regard to the disease itself. Serious, life-threatening or fatal respiratory depression can occur with the use of opioids even when used as recommended. It can occur at any time during the use of Nurofen Plus but the risk is greatest during initiation of therapy or following an increase in dose. Patients should be monitored closely for respiratory depression at these times. (A more dilute form of Sterile Triamcinolone Acetonide Suspension USP is available as Kenacort-A 10 Injection). For adults, doses up to 10 mg for smaller areas and up to 40 mg for larger areas have usually been sufficient to alleviate symptoms. Single injections into several joints for multiple locus involvement, up to a total of 80 mg have been given without undue reactions. A single local injection of triamcinolone acetonide is frequently sufficient, but several injections may be needed for adequate relief of symptoms. The lower dosages in the initial dosage range of triamcinolone acetonide may produce the desired effect when the corticosteroid is administered to provide a localised concentration. The site of the injection and the volume of the injection should be carefully considered when triamcinolone acetonide is administered for this purpose. Concurrent use of hydroxyzine with codeine may result in increased analgesia as well as increased CNS depressant, sedative and hypotensive effects. Cimetidine inhibits the metabolism of opioid analgesics resulting in increased plasma concentrations. Ibuprofen, like other NSAIDs can reduce the antihypertensive effect of ACE inhibitors and beta-blockers with possible loss of blood pressure control and can attenuate the natriuretic effects of diuretics. Concomitant use of antimuscarinics or medications with muscarinic action, e.g. atropine and some antidepressants may result in increased risk of severe constipation which may lead to paralytic ileus and/or urinary retention. Patients should be assessed for their risks for opioid abuse or addiction prior to being prescribed Nurofen Plus. Nurofen Plus contains the opioid codeine and is a potential drug of abuse, misuse and addiction. Addiction can occur in patients appropriately prescribed Nurofen Plus at recommended doses. Codeine has been reported to be incompatible with phenobarbitone sodium forming a codeine phenobarbitone complex, and with potassium-iodide, forming crystals of codeine periodide. Acetylation of codeine phosphate by acetylsalicylic acid has occurred in solid dosage forms containing the two drugs, even at low moisture levels. NSAIDs may exacerbate cardiac failure, reduce GFR and increase plasma glycoside levels. Codeine may potentiate the effects of these drugs (see Section 4.4, Risks from concomitant use of benzodiazepines or other CNS depressants, including alcohol). The combined use of the three classes of drugs, diuretics, an ACE inhibiting drug and an anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID or cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) inhibitor) CBD Cartridges all at the same time increases the risk of renal impairment. The combination of drugs from these three classes should be used with caution particularly in elderly patients or those with pre-existing renal impairment. Nurofen Plus should be administered with caution in those with hypotension and/or hypothyroidism. Some people may get other side effects while taking NUROFEN PLUS. Tell your doctor or pharmacist if you notice anything else that worries you. Serious side effects are rare for low doses of this medicine and when used for a short period of time. Do not take high doses of the medicine for long periods of time unless your doctor tells you to. NUROFEN PLUS may cause dizziness, light-headedness or drowsiness in some people. The suggested initial dose is 40 mg, although dosage depends on the severity of symptoms than on age or weight. There is insufficient clinical experience with Kenacort-A 40 Injection to recommend its use in children under six years of age. In maintenance therapy, the patient to patient response is not uniform and, therefore, the dose must be individualised for optimal control. Many corticosteroids have been shown to be teratogenic in laboratory animals at low doses. Infants born of mothers who have received substantial doses of corticosteroids during pregnancy should be carefully observed for signs of hypoadrenalism. Neurological complications and lack of antibody response may occur when patients taking corticosteroids are vaccinated (see Section 4.4 Special Warnings and Precautions for Use). The writer will confirm whether they will submit the paper within the set deadline. All our essays and assignments are written from scratch and are not connected to any essay database. Every essay is written independent from other previously written essays even though the essay question might be similar. We also do not at any point resell any paper that had been previously written for a client. To ensure we submit original and non-plagiarized papers to our clients, all our papers are passed through a plagiarism check. We also have professional editors who go through each and every complete paper to ensure they are error free. Also, the city’s department of Traffic and Transportation has now automated pedestrian crossing signals near essential service areas citywide to prevent the potential spread of COVID-19 via crossing signal push buttons. Signage was installed today at the automated intersections informing pedestrians of the change and directing them to not touch the push buttons. Though not able to attend due to the religious holiday, Judi Corsaro, Chief Executive Officer of the Charleston Jewish Federation, provided a written statement that was read on her behalf. All indoor recreation facilities will continue to be closed to the public. Withdrawal symptoms can also occur following the administration of an opioid antagonist (e.g. naloxone) or partial agonist (e.g. buprenorphine). Use of ibuprofen in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus and mixed connective tissue disease can increase the risk of aseptic meningitis. The symptoms of glucocorticoid overdose may include confusion, anxiety, depression, gastrointestinal cramping or bleeding, ecchymosis, moon face and hypertension. After long-term use, rapid withdrawal can result in acute adrenal insufficiency . For systemic therapy, injection should be made deeply into the gluteal muscle to ensure intramuscular delivery (see Section 4.4 Special Warnings and Precautions for Use). Routine laboratory studies, such as urinalysis, two-hour postprandial blood sugar, determination of blood pressure and body weight and a chest X-ray should be made at regular intervals during prolonged therapy. If possible, abrupt cessation of steroids should be avoided because of the danger of superimposing adrenocortical insufficiency on the infectious process. A marked increase in pain accompanied by local swelling, further restriction of joint motion, fever, and malaise are suggestive of a septic arthritis. Appropriate examination of any joint fluid present is necessary to exclude a septic process. Patients should not be vaccinated against smallpox while on corticosteroid therapy. Other immunisation procedures should not be undertaken in patients who are on corticosteroids, especially on high dose, because of possible hazards or neurological complications and a lack of antibody response. 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Keep track of medicines and access… Content 2 Dose And Method Of Administration Taking Other Medicines Side Effects Citizen Services Desk Use Of Opioids In Chronic Long Use Ap Potential To Plan For Next School Year Adults And Children 12 Years And Over Relevant, timely and evidence-based information for Australian health professionals and consumers. Keep track of medicines and access…

Every time a new new Israeli-Palestinian peace plan is unveiled, diplomats and analysts will invariably urge the various players to summon the political courage to seize this latest “window of opportunity.” And sure enough – as I was reading an article on the latest revamping of the Arab Peace Plan, one Israeli leftist pundit was quoted tweeting:”"Historic opportunity for Israel. Will our government have the guts to seize it?” As for me, I’m asking a different question: “Since Israel has all but annexed 60% of the West Bank through home demolitions, forced evictions, revocation of residency rights and unchecked construction of Jewish settlements, how could anyone think this government is even remotely interested in a viable two-state solution?” How much longer does this have to continue until we are ready to admit the patently obvious intentions of Israel’s governments? Given the facts on the ground, the discussion of a viable, contiguous Palestinian state in the West Bank is beyond absurd. Israel has been inexorably settling Area C and East Jerusalem while simultaneously depopulating those regions of Palestinian residents for decades. By this point, this process has become nigh well complete. Now Israel’s newest government coalition includes a major party whose official platform calls to annex Area C. One prominent Israeli settler leader calls the current government “a wet dream.” Are we really, truly going to continue to talk about a two-state peace process with a straight face? According to a 2011 EU research report, in 1967, between 200,000 and 320,000 Palestinians lived in what is today called Area C. But since that time, home demolitions and Israel’s prevention of new building has caused that number drop to 56,000. In a similar period, the Jewish population in Area C has grown from 1,200 to 310,000. Israeli journalist Amira Hass has convincingly argued that the creation of “Palestinian ghettos” in Areas A and B “were always the plan” even well before the 1993 Oslo peace process that created these zones. According to Hass, when new coalition party member Naftali Bennett calls for annexing Area C, he is only “following the logic of every single Israeli government: maximize the territory, minimize the Arabs:” According to Bennett, about 60 percent of the West Bank – a.k.a. Area C – is annexable. What’s important about Area C is not whether 50,000 Palestinians live there, as democratic, benevolent Bennett claims, while suggesting to naturalize them and grant them Israeli citizenship, or whether the number is around 150,000 (as my colleague Chaim Levinson reminded us earlier this week). Don’t worry. Even if there are 300,000 Palestinians living in Area C and all of them agree to become citizens, the Israeli bureaucracy will find ways to embitter their lives (the way it does the lives of the Bedouin in the Negev), revoke their citizenship (the way it does the residency status of Palestinians in East Jerusalem) and leave them without the little share of their land they still have (the way it did to the Palestinian citizens of Israel within the 1948 borders). This is why Bennett can allow himself to be munificent. The true story behind area C is that there aren’t 400,000 Palestinians living there today; the villages have not expanded in accordance with their natural population growth; the number of residents has not grown; the herders can no longer graze their flocks freely; many of the inhabitants lack access to water, electricity, school and medical clinics; Israel has not been taken to the International Criminal Court in the Hague for destroying the cisterns; there are no paved roads in and between villages… As I have said a million times and will say another million times: Area C is a tremendous success of Israeli policy and its implementers, the army and the Civil Administration. It is part of a farsighted, well-executed, perfectly thought-out policy that has succeeded precisely in that there aren’t 400,000 Palestinians living in the area. Bennett is probably decent/honest enough to acknowledge the debt he owes to the previous generations of Israeli politicians and military officials who warmed the country up for his annexation plan, ensuring its acceptance would be as effortless as a knife cutting butter in the sun. The long and short of it? If the international community is really interested in a just peace, it should stop trying to breathe life into a corpse of a peace process and hold Israel accountable for its ethnic cleansing/annexation of Area C. And at the same time, it would behoove us all to start exploring creative new solutions that would extend full civil and human rights to all who live on the land. In this regard, I highly recommend this recent piece by journalist/blogger Mitchell Plitnick. Mitchell has long represented an important progressive voice on Israel/Palestine: consistently smart, well-informed and always underscored by an abiding political realism. Like so many of us, he has long clung to the paradigm of a two-state solution – but over the past year he has been openly exploring the compelling reasons why he believes that the door to this solution has now become irrevocably closed. In this recent article, he dares to explore out loud what a new one-state solution might possibly look like: …In the end, Israelis will realize that the status quo can’t hold and they will have to find a way to give Palestinians their freedom and their rights. That can be done without losing the most basic elements of a Jewish homeland. But it will require abandoning the ethnocratic concept of the Jewish state that has characterized Israel since before it was Israel. The state can still be a Jewish home, with a constitution that guarantees that any Jew fleeing anti-Semitism anywhere in the world can find a haven in Israel. It can be a state where Hebrew is still a national language and one that has a culture that draws heavily from Jewish roots, European, Middle Eastern and Iberian. It just can’t do these things exclusively. They will also have to apply equally to Palestinians. It’s not such a leap. Palestinians would also be able to come to this reformed state to flee persecution. Arabic would also be a national language, as it officially is now. The culture of the state would reflect the Palestinian heritage as well as the Jewish one. Yad Vashem, the Holocaust memorial, would still be there, but there might also be memorials to the Palestinian villages that were destroyed. Palestinian refugees who wish to would have an opportunity to return gradually, through some bureaucratic process that both peoples would agree upon. Yes, that means the Jews will not be a majority, but a constitution would protect not only Jewish and Arab rights equally, but would ensure that the character of the state reflected both cultures. That is important, and it is also the place where the vision of a secular, democratic state falls short. The biggest problem with that vision is that it ignores the strong sense of nationalism that exists among both Israeli Jews and Palestinian Arabs. As someone who has no use or liking for nationalism, I wish that were not the case, but wishing does not make it so. The future state cannot be a melting pot, a mere civic society, in the manner the United States strives to be. It must be a national home. Whatever the political formation may be, it must be reflective of the nations that have been created by Zionism among Jews and Palestinian nationalism among the Arabs of Palestine. Obviously, this is a future that is not on the horizon. And it is clear that many people, probably most, would not be able to conceive that such a future is even possible. But the alternative for Israeli Jews will be the eventual total loss of any homeland in Eretz Yisrael. A state with democratic structures like Israel which deprives millions of people of human and civil rights is an inherent contradiction. A state with one set of laws for some people and another set for another group of people all under one sovereign is an apartheid state, and it is a thing the world no longer tolerates. Only Israel’s unique place as the state of the Jews, in the wake of the Holocaust has allowed that state of affairs to last this long. Mitchell is certainly correct when he says that this future is not on the horizon as of yet. Soon enough, however, the world will see the patently apartheid nature of a state the privileges its Jewish citizens while warehousing Palestinians inside a “security” regime of walls and checkpoints. As this oppression become more undeniable, we’ll surely be hearing and reading similar visions to Mitchell’s. At present these ideas exist largely in the domain of academia, journalism and the activist community; might we dare to imagine that events on the ground will eventually cause them to be considered by the political elites? As far as I’m concerned, that time cannot come soon enough. By all accounts, Bibi Netanyahu will be the winner of the upcoming elections on January 22 – after which he will proceed to form the most right-wing/ultra-nationalist coalition in Israeli history. The only question that remains is by what degree. Among new political figures on the scene, Naftali Bennett, the leader of the HaBayit HaYehudi (“Jewish Home”) party seems to be garnering the most attention. Even as Bibi’s Likud-Beiteinu party drops in the polls, HaBayit HaYehudi (a restructured version of the old National Religious Party) is growing in popularity – and will almost certainly become an important player in a new coalition. If you’ve never heard of Bennett, you will soon. He’s the son of American immigrants, a successful hi-tech businessman, Bibi’s former chief of staff (they’ve since had a high profile falling out) and the former head of the West Bank settlers’ Yesha Council. Bennett raised some major dust last month when he told a television interviewer that he would personally refuse orders to evacuate settlements or outposts in the West Bank while on reserve army duty. He also is on record as advocating the annexation of Area C of the West Bank. Under his plan, Palestinians already living there would be given the choice to accept Israeli citizenship or leave. While he was roundly criticized from many political quarters for his remarks about army service, his party has become the most popular Israeli party with young Israelis under the age of 30. Clearly, Bennett and his views represent Israel’s future – one that seems to be skewing further and further away from democracy and ever closer to apartheid policies. Take a look at HaBayit Hayehudi’s English language campaign video ad at the top of this post. As Don Futterman recently observed in Open Zion, it’s a canny attempt to gloss over the more odious aspects of Bennett’s ideology with a legit and cheerful veneer designed specifically to appeal to American immigrants to Israel: This ad, which is part of a campaign to create different and more positive associations with the name HaBayit HaYehudi (the Jewish Home), is an invitation, not a polemic. It mentions buzzwords—Jewish values and Zionist ideals—and one issue from the party’s platform—Jewish education—but does not harp on any of them. You wouldn’t guess that HaBayit HaYehudi has any connection to the national religious right in Israel, and you might even miss the single reference to West Bank settlements (“I live in Samaria”). You certainly wouldn’t suspect that Bennett has promised he would go to jail rather than evacuate a settlement. Watching the video, I was also struck that it made repeated references to the importance of Israel’s Jewish character without explicitly explaining why this should in any way be considered a political issue: If you want to bring Jewish values and Zionist ideals to Israel, then the Bayit Yedudi is your home…If you believe that every Israeli child deserves a quality Jewish education, the Bayit Yehudi is your home. While on the surface, remarks such as this sound perfectly innocuous, they mask a profoundly troubling agenda. What about the Palestinians citizens of Israel who do not adhere to “Jewish values” or “Zionist ideals?” It’s certainly sounds noble to say that Israeli child deserves a quality Jewish education, but what about the considerable percentage of Israeli children who don’t happen to be Jewish? The answer, of course, is not too difficult to understand. These Israeli citizens simply don’t fit in the xenophobic ideology advocated by Naftali Bennett and HaBayit HaYedudi. In a recent post for +972 mag, Noam Sheizaf makes a perfectly reasonable argument – but given Israel’s current reality it would likely strike many as radical in the extreme. Pointing out that in 64 years of Israel’s existence, no government has ever included one of the Arab parties in a coalition, Sheizaf concludes: Cooperation between Palestinian and Jews is by far the greatest, most important challenge in this country. Every element of Israeli life – from the education system to zoning plans – is constructed to promote ethnic separation, with politics being just the tip of the iceberg…Therefore, the ability to create joint structures and partnerships is the single most important element that would determine the chances of survival and the quality of life for the entire society. The necessary conclusion for me is that it is simply forbidden to vote for parties which are not shared by Palestinians and Jews, or for ones that preserve the policy of separation between Palestinians and Jews. There are no perfect parties, but this should be the basic condition, just as an American shouldn’t vote for a party that doesn’t accept black people. Alas, voices like Sheizaf’s are but a whisper in the Israeli wilderness. According to the latest polls, Arab-Jewish parties will garner only a small sliver of votes in the upcoming election. When it comes to the Israeli electorate, the ideology of Jewish supremacy is clearly the order of the day. For comparison purposes, take a look, below, at this campaign video ad for the Da’am Workers Party – one of the few Arab-Jewish parties of which Sheizaf spoke. I’d say their values provide a powerful contrast to ethnic exclusivism of HaBayit Hayehudi: (This) movement is our hope, everyone’s hope that here will arise, in the State of Israel, for the first time in history a political, social, economic alternative, sane, human, fair, that knows how to be part of the region where it’s located. For 64 years we’ve lived in a ghetto. The time has come to get out of the ghetto! Israel has to stop isolating itself…We say no! We’ll bring down the wall of Occupation, the wall of racism, and the wall of violence. We want to be free in our land indeed, and our land is the entire world, and this world needs one unique answer, it needs a revolution! Received from my friend and colleague Rabbi Brian Walt: “Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about the things that matter.” Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. An immediate end to Israel’s assault on Gaza, “Operation Pillar of Defense,”matters. An immediate end to the violence—the onslaught of missiles, rockets, drones, killing, and targeted assassination—matters. An end to Israel’s ongoing blockade of Gaza matters. An end to Israeli’s 45-year occupation of Palestine matters. A resolution of the issue of Palestinian refugees expelled from their homes in 1948, many of whom live in Gaza matters. Equality, security, and human rights for everyone matters. We write as individuals who recently traveled to the West Bank with the Dorothy Cotton Institute’s 2012 Civil and Human Rights Delegation, organized by Interfaith Peace-Builders. We cannot and will not be silent. We join our voices with people around the world who are calling for an immediate cease-fire. Specifically, we implore President Barack Obama to demand that Israel withdraw its forces from Gaza’s borders; make U.S. aid to Israel conditional upon Israel’s adherence with relevant U.S. and international law; work with Israeli and Palestinian leaders to bring an end to Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories and to secure a just peace that ensures everyone’s human rights. In the words of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., “Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars.” As Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin declared in 1993, “Enough of blood and tears.” Enough! We deplore the firing of rockets on civilian areas in Israel. We also deplore and are outraged by the asymmetry, the disproportionality, of Israel’s bombardment of Gaza, evidenced by the growing number of Palestinian civilian deaths and casualties. This is not a conflict between equal powers, but between a prosperous occupying nation on one hand, armed and sanctioned by 3 billion dollars in annual U.S. military aid, and on the other, a population of 1.7 million besieged people, trapped within a strip of land only 6 miles by 26 miles, (147 square miles) in what amounts to an open-air prison. United States military support to Israel is huge. From 2000 to 2009, the US appropriated to Israel $24 billion in military aid, delivering more than 670 million weapons and related military equipment with this money. During these same years, through its illegal military occupation of the Palestinian West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza Strip, Israel killed at least 2,969 Palestinians who took no part in hostilities. During our trip to the West Bank, we witnessed for ourselves the injustice and violence of the Israeli occupation and the suffering inflicted on the Palestinians, in violation of international law and UN resolutions. In the Palestinian village of Nabi Saleh, for just one example, we observed a weekly nonviolent protest. The neighboring Israeli settlement of Halamish was illegally built on Nabi Saleh’s land. This settlement has also seized control of the Nabi Saleh’s water spring, allowing villagers to access their own spring water for only 7-10 hours a week. Demonstrators of all ages participated in the protest, including several who, in recognition of the civil rights veterans in our delegation, carried posters with quotations from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. We watched in horror as heavily armed members of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) responded to this peaceful assembly with violence, strafing the demonstrators with a barrage of tear gas canisters, rubber bullets, gas grenades, and even a round of live ammunition. The IDF assault in response to these weekly nonviolent demonstrations can be deadly. Rushdi Tamimi, a young adult Nabi Saleh villager, died this past week while he was protesting Israel’s attack on Gaza. The IDF fired rubber bullets into Rushdi’s back and bullets into his gut, and slammed his head with a rifle butt. Israel’s assault on Gaza is exponentially more violent than what we witnessed in the West Bank, but the context–the oppression of the Palestinian people—is the same. Most of the inhabitants of Gaza are refugees or descendants of refugees expelled from their homes in Israel in 1948. This dispossession of the Palestinians that they call the Nakba (The Catastrophe) continues on the West Bank where Israel has built extensive Jewish settlements on confiscated Palestinian land. We saw with our own eyes how this settlement expansion and the systemic discrimination has further dispossessed the Palestinian people and is creating a “silent transfer” of Palestinians who are either forced or decide to leave because of the oppression. This injustice—Israel’s decades-long oppression of the Palestinian people—has to be addressed by honest and good-faith negotiations and a genuine agreement to share the land. The alternative is a future of endless eruptions of aggression, senseless bloodshed, and more trauma for Palestinians and Israelis. This surely matters to all people of good will. To President Obama, we say, use the immense power and authority United States citizens have once again entrusted to you, to exercise your courage and moral leadership to preserve lives and protect the dignity and self-determination, to which the Palestinian people and all people are entitled. Israel relies upon the economic, military, and strategic cooperation and support of the United States. You have the power to not only appeal to Israel to show restraint, but to require it. Feeling ourselves deeply a part of “We the People,” sharing so much of your own tradition of organizing for justice and peace, we believe it is just, moral and in keeping with the best spirit of Dr. King to urge you to: § Call for an end to violence by all parties and an immediate cease-fire for the sake of all people in the region. § Use your power to demand that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the IDF cease the bombardment of Gaza and withdraw their armed forces immediately. § Join with the international community in using all diplomatic, economic, and strategic means to end Israel’s illegal, brutal siege of Gaza. § Insist that the United States condition aid to Israel on compliance with U.S. law (specifically the U.S. Arms Export Control Act) and with international law. § Work with the leaders of Israel and Palestine to secure an end to Israel’s occupation and to negotiate a just peace. As citizens of the United States, we are responsible for what our government does in our name, and so we will not be silent. Justice, peace and truth matter. The future of the children of Israel and Palestine matter. We cannot be silent and neither can you. Members of the The Dorothy Cotton Institute 2012 Civil and Human Rights Delegation: (List in formation) Cross-posted with the Jewish Daily Forward “Forward Thinking” Blog: Forward columnist Philologos recently took the Israeli daily Ha’aretz to task for using the term “apartheid” in its reporting on a poll that showed most Israelis support discrimination against Arab citizens. “Apartheid” and mere discrimination are two very different things, Philologos claimed. He suggested that Ha’aretz should be censured for using such a damning epithet. Philologos went on to define what he sees the critical difference between “apartheid” and “discrimination.” The former refers to “the systematic segregation of one people, race or group from another,” while the latter means “the systematic favoring of one people, race or group over another, such as exists in numerous countries around the world today.” And while Israel may practice regrettable discrimination against its Arab citizens, he claimed it was a “lie” to suggest that it is in any way an apartheid state. While Philologos may be a fine linguist, his knowledge of international human rights law is sorely lacking. Contrary to Philologos’ characterization, the term “apartheid” does not refer simply to segregation, although the term comes from a word in the South African Afrikaans language that means separate-ness or segregation. In legal terms, apartheid applies to a wide range of acts in which a dominant racial regime commits institutionalized oppression against another ethnic group. According to the 1998 Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, for instance, the “crime of apartheid” was included in a list of “crimes against humanity,” and defined as: (Inhuman) acts…committed in the content of an institutionalized regime of systematic oppression and domination by one racial group over any other racial group and committed with the intention of maintaining that regime. Earlier, in 1973, the UN’s General Assembly adopted the International Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid. Among the “inhuman acts” listed were: (Any) legislative measures and other measures calculated to prevent a racial group or groups from participation in the political, social, economic and cultural life of a country. There is certainly a compelling claim to be made that the term “apartheid” may appropriately be applied to Israel’s treatment of its Palestinian citizens. In a recent report, Adalah, an Israeli legal NGO, described no fewer than 30 laws, either enacted or proposed, that create different sets of legal rights for Jewish and non-Jewish (i.e. Palestinian) citizens of Israel. While many Jews prefer to view Israel as an essentially healthy, if flawed, democracy, those willing to face the painful truth have long known that the so-called “democratic Jewish state” would more accurately be described as a democracy for Jews but not for non-Jews. Consider the following facts: - Israel has no constitution that guarantees individual liberties for all. Palestinian citizens’ homes and land are regularly seized or demolished to give housing to Jews. B’tselem, an Israeli human rights organization, recently reported that the citizenship of increasing numbers of East Jerusalem residents are being revoked to make way for more land appropriation. - There are separate schools for Palestinians and Jews. In Israeli universities, no courses are offered in Arabic, even Arabic literature. Use of Arabic in road signs is banned except in towns that the government deems Arab. - While Jewish citizens of Israel can confer citizenship on new spouses who are not already Israeli citizens, Palestinian citizens cannot. According to the law, a Palestinian citizen of Israel who marries a Palestinian resident of the West Bank or Gaza may not reside inside Israel. The ruling literally affects the lives of thousands of couples and their precious right to marry if they so choose. In upholding this law, one Israeli Supreme Court judge conceded that Palestinian rights take a back seat to maintaining a Jewish majority in Israel. “Human rights are not a prescription for national suicide,” he wrote. - Palestinian citizens of Israel have distinguishing characteristics on their ID cards, presumably so they can be easily identified for additional scrutiny by law enforcement agencies. Palestinians are regularly harassed, searched and asked to produce identification, based entirely on their race. While Jewish citizens are legally entitled to a speedy trial, fair legal representation and clear charges, these laws do not apply to Palestinian citizens. There are many more examples of ways that Israel systematically privileges Jewish citizens over non-Jewish citizens. Organizations such as Adalah, B’tselem and the Association for Civil Rights in Israel have extensively documented these methods. It is important to note that these are not simply a collection of random discriminatory laws, as Philologos would have it. Taken together, they constitute a systematic, institutional “legal” system that maintains Jews’ privileged status in the Jewish state and, most critically, seeks to ensure a Jewish demographic majority within Israel’s borders at all costs. One telling case in point: back in 2005, Shimon Peres told U.S. officials (in a statement recently revealed by Wikileaks) that Israel had “lost” land in the Negev “to the Bedouin” and would need to take steps to “relieve” the “demographic threat”. Flash forward to January 2012: the Israeli government approves the Prawer Plan for mass expulsion of the Arab Bedouin community in the Negev desert. When fully implemented, this plan will result in the forced displacement of up to seventy thousand Arab Bedouin citizens of Israel and the destruction of thirty-five “unrecognized” villages. At the end of the day, it really is academic whether we choose to label this kind of policy — and many others like it — to be “discrimination,” “institutional racism” or “apartheid.” The real question before us not what to call it. For Jews who purport to cherish human rights, the right question is: what are we willing to do about it? Cross-posted with Rabbi Brian’s Blog We are building up a new world, we are building up a new world, We are building up a new world, builders must be strong. Courage brothers don’t be weary, courage sisters don’t be weary, Courage people don’t be weary, though the road be long. This is one of the many songs I sang as I led a remarkable delegation of US Civil Rights movement leaders, young human rights leaders, prominent Black academics and educators and several Jewish activists that traveled through the West Bank two weeks ago. Our delegation was a project of the Dorothy Cotton Institute, an organization dedicated to human rights education and to building a global human rights community. Dorothy Cotton served as the Director of Education of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) and was the only woman on the executive staff. She led the Citizenship Education Program that empowered the disenfranchised to exercise their rights as citizens. The goals of this historic delegation were: - to create and build an ongoing relationship between leaders of the US civil rights movement and the leaders of the growing Palestinian nonviolent resistance movement on the West Bank and their Israeli allies; - to increase the visibility of this movement in the US and internationally; - to learn from one another about nonviolence, effective solidarity and social transformation; - and to educate Americans about the role the United States plays in supporting the status quo on the West Bank. Our delegation spent two weeks on the West Bank. We visited three Palestinian villages – Budrus, Bilin, Nabi Saleh – that have engaged for many years in a popular nonviolent struggle to reclaim land expropriated by the Israeli military. We met several young Palestinians who are building the Coalition for Dignity, a grassroots, youth – led nonviolent movement. And we met Israeli allies who stand in solidarity with the Palestinian nonviolent movement and who work in their own society to end militarism and human rights violations against Palestinians. We learned from many Israeli and Palestinian nonviolent activists about their work, their vision and their dreams. In short, our delegation saw and learned about realities that the overwhelming number of visitors to Israel never see or hear. Singing was an essential part of the spiritual and political life of our trip. Dorothy has a beautiful spirit, a powerful voice, and loves to sing. Throughout the delegation, she always reminded us that singing was a critical tool for energizing the civil rights movement. She told me, We had songs for different occasions. We sang at mass meetings, and we sang at funerals … We sang, “I am going to do what the Spirit says do” and our singing inspired us to do just that. And so our new civil rights delegation sang as we traveled through the West Bank. Singing was just one powerful way in which our delegation made a connection between the Black-led struggle for civil rights in the US and the Palestinian struggle for justice, peace and security for all. This, for instance, is the song we sang at the grave of a young man in Budrus who was killed in a nonviolent demonstration to protest the confiscation of his village’s land: Come By here my Lord, come by here. For our brother, my Lord, come by here. For his courage my Lord, come by here. Standing around the grave, delegates spontaneously composed the lyrics. It felt like we were praying, acknowledging the courage and the profound cost that the struggle for freedom demands. We sang before we joined the weekly nonviolent demonstration in Nabi Saleh, another village on the West Bank fighting to reclaim their land. The residents of the village had made special signs composed of quotations from Dr. Martin Luther King in honor of our visit. “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere” read one of the signs. And we sang: Ain’t going to let nobody turn me around, turn me around, turn me around. Keep on walking, keep on talking, marching down to freedom land. We sang to express our appreciation and to provide support after hearing activists tell us their stories – Palestinians and Israelis who told us of their amazing work and the toll it has taken on their lives, and sometimes even their spirits and souls. One such occasion was after Israeli activist Gabi Laski told us of her work to defend children from villages like Nabi Saleh who are arrested at night. We’re going to keep on marching forward, keep on marching forward, keep on marching forward, never turning back, never turning back. We sang after standing next to the thirty foot high Separation Wall in Jerusalem dividing a Palestinian neighborhood in two. And we sang on the bus as we went through a checkpoint on our way to the airport at the end of our trip, encouraged by our Palestinian guide to keep singing even when the soldier boarded our bus. (Our bus was pulled aside for a security check because it was a Palestinian bus while Israeli buses and motorists were waved through the checkpoint). We returned to the United States both inspired and disturbed by our experience. We were inspired by the determination, vision and commitment of so many Palestinians and their Israeli allies, working tirelessly day after day, year after year, often at great personal and communal cost, for justice, freedom and equality for all. Now that we are home, we look forward to sharing the stories and vision of these courageous civil rights activists with our friends and communities. But our trip was not simply inspiring. It was profoundly disturbing to witness the harsh realities of life on the West Bank that are so invisible to the discourse in America. Every day we saw and heard about a systematic denial of human rights in countless ways: land confiscation, extensive restrictions on movement, humiliation at check points, home demolition, the arrest of children, the revocation of residency permits and many other violations. The delegates were profoundly shocked. Several American civil rights veterans commented that the discrimination, humiliation and injustice they witnessed was “frighteningly familiar.” While we were on the West Bank the two presidential candidates tried to outdo one another in their public declarations of support for Israel in the final presidential debate. They mentioned Israel 31 times with only one passing reference to Palestinians. The contrast between American policy and what we witnessed is stark. Now that we have returned, we are determined to share this disturbing reality with our communities; to challenge the ways in which our country funds, provides diplomatic cover, and enables these injustices. I have visited the West Bank before but never for more than a day or two, and almost always with progressive Israeli groups. On this visit, however, we spent virtually all out time in the West Bank – on the other side of the Separation Wall. For me personally, it was a transformative experience. It was a privilege to travel with such a special group of people and to see the profound impact of our delegation on the activists that we met. Before we left on our journey, I was struck by a comment made by Dr. Vincent Harding, a close associate of Dr. Martin Luther King, a person with a long history of involvement in the struggle for freedom and a very close life-long connection to Jewish teachers, fellow travelers and co-workers. Dr. Harding talked about “encouragement” as one of his primary goals for the trip. I was struck by the word and the simple power of his intention. He wanted to meet activists on the West Bank and to “encourage” them. And that is exactly what happened. The people we met commented how encouraged they felt by meeting people who had spent their entire lives fighting for freedom in the US. Dr. Harding and others would repeatedly ask all our presenters to tell us about themselves, their families and what motivated them to do what they were doing. He and others always shared how much he appreciated their work and how important it was for all of us and for our collective future. After hearing an inspiring talk by Fadi Quran, one of the young leaders of the Palestinian nonviolent movement, Dr. Harding said, “Fadi, I want to tell you how proud I am and how grateful I am for you, and want to encourage you to keep on going.” It felt like we were building a new world. On the very first day of our trip, Dorothy Cotton sang and danced with three women activists, Israeli and Palestinian, who had spoken to us. It was a joy to see the profound gift she was giving them and that they were giving her in return. Those who had spent their lives building a new world in America were creating a relationship with those who were building a new world in Israel/Palestine. Towards the end of the trip we realized that we were just beginning to build a new world in another way by creating a new possibility for the relationship between Jews and Blacks in our own country. Historically, Israeli policy has been a source of tension between the African American and Jewish communities. While many African Americans on the delegation have deep and positive connections to Jews, it is often difficult for Blacks and Jews to have honest conversations about Israel. There were eight Jews on this delegation. On this trip we joined together as a group of Blacks, Jews, Christians and people with varied faith commitments, united in our commitment to nonviolence and our dedication to justice, freedom and equality in Israel/Palestine, in our own country, and around the world. We are renewing an alliance between Blacks and Jews, an alliance rooted in our shared values. We are building up a new world, we are building up a new world. We are building up a new world, builders must be strong. Courage brothers don’t be weary, courage sisters don’t be weary, Courage people don’t be weary, though the road be long. Please read my friend Rabbi Brian Walt’s new piece in Ha’aretz. He has recently returned from a remarkable interfaith delegation to the West Bank; I will be posting more of his writings about his experiences in the near future. In his recent Haaretz op-ed, “Heading toward an irreparable rift between U.S. Jews and Protestants,” my colleague, Rabbi Eric Yoffie, sharply criticized the recent letter to Congress by leaders of Protestant churches that called for U.S. military aid to Israel to be contingent on Israeli compliance with American law. Nowhere in his article, however, did Yoffie mention the central concern of the Christian leaders’ letter: the overwhelming evidence of systematic human rights violations by the Israeli military against Palestinians. Over the past two weeks, I had the privilege of leading an interfaith delegation including several leaders of the civil rights movement, younger civil and human rights leaders, Christian clergy, academics, and several Jews, on a two-week trip to the West Bank. We were all shocked by the widespread human rights violations that we saw with our own eyes and that we heard about from both Palestinians and Israelis. Several black members of our group, including those who participated actively in the civil rights movement, remarked that what they saw on the West Bank was “frighteningly familiar” to their own experience, a systemic pattern of discrimination that privileged one group (in this case, Jews) and denigrated another (Palestinians). Shortly after a gunman killed six worshipers in a Wisconsin Sikh temple and a Joplin Missouri mosque was burned to the ground, Illinois Congressman Joe Walsh felt perfectly comfortable uttering incendiary anti-Muslim comments at a town hall meeting last Wednesday, warning that “there is a radical strain of Islam in this country…trying to kill Americans every week.” Offering no evidence or backup for his allegations, he continued: “It’s here. It’s in Elk Grove, it’s in Addison, it’s in Elgin. It’s here.” Then he poured it on: I’m looking for some godly men and women in the Senate, in the Congress, who will stand in the face of the danger of Islam in America without political correctness. Islam is not the peaceful, loving religion we hear about. Shortly after Walsh’s town meeting remarks, pellet rifle shots were fired at a mosque in Morton Grove, IL. I don’t know about a domestic “radical Islamic plot” but by now it should be abundantly clear that there is a deadly strain of Islamophobia in our country. In such a climate, I’d say it is the height of irresponsibility for public servants to issue remarks such as these. It was my honor to stand, together with interfaith colleagues, with my good friends at CAIR – Chicago to express our outrage at Walsh’s sick bigotry (clip above). If you stand with us, please, please let Rep. Walsh know how you feel. I’m sure there are many who watch Israel’s Jewish settlement policy unfold in the West Bank and East Jerusalem and ask themselves: is there actually a method to this madness? Among the most compelling answers to this question comes from veteran Israeli peace activist Jeff Halper, co-founder and coordinator of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions. One of the truly great Israeli peace organizations, ICAHD has been indefatigably tracking the demolition of homes and evictions of Palestinians in the Occupied Territories since 2007. Even more critically, Halper and Co. have been exposing Israel’s institutionalized displacement of Palestinians and their resettlement in concentrated areas throughout the West Bank. In an interview last week, Halper offered a detailed – and profoundly troubling – picture of Israel’s resettlement of Palestinians throughout the Occupied Territories: (Area C of the West Bank) contains less than 5 per cent of the Palestinian population. In 1967 the Jordan valley contained about 250,000 people. Today it’s less than 50,000. So the Palestinians have either been driven out of the country, especially the middle class, or they have been driven to areas A and B. That’s where 96 or 97 per cent of them are. The Palestinian population has been brought down low enough, there is probably somewhere around 125,000 Palestinians in area C, so Israel could annex area C and give them full citizenship. Basically, Israel can absorb 125,000 Palestinians without upsetting the demographic balance. And then, what is the world going to say? It’s not apartheid, Israel has given them full citizenship. So I think Israel feels it could get away with that. No one cares about what’s happening in areas A and B. If they want to declare a state, they can… In other words, we’re finished. Israel is now from the Mediterranean to the Jordan River, the Palestinians have been confined in areas A and B or in small enclaves in East Jerusalem, and that’s it. To better understand Halper’s point, look carefully at the map on the top right of this post. Areas A, B and C refer to regions that were created through the terms of the 1993 Oslo Accords. According to the agreement, Palestinians are responsible for security and for the civil administration of Area A; Area B is under Israeli military control and Palestinian civil authority; and Area C is under total Israeli military and civil control. (In reality, however, the Israeli military has ultimate control over all three areas – for over a decade the IDF regularly has made incursions into Areas A and B with impunity). According to the terms of the Oslo Accords, these three regions were intended to be temporary until 1998; today they have become permanent facts on the ground. As you can see from white portions of the map, Area C comprises the strong majority of the West Bank. It contains nearly all Israeli settlements; it is crisscrossed by Israeli-only access roads that connect the settlements to each other and to Israel proper; it includes large buffer zones and almost all of the Jordan Valley and the Judean Desert (the large swath of white on the east). As Halper points out, Israel is pursing policies that are systematically driving Palestinians out of Area C, to the extent that these regions now contain less than 5% of the population. The overwhelming majority of West Bank Palestinians now live in Areas A and B (on the map, grey and black) – which are essentially concentrated, disconnected cantons separated by checkpoints and choked off from Israel by the Separation Wall. Bottom line? Israel has succeeded extending its control over the majority of the West Bank by moving Palestinian residents into what amount to “legal” open-air prisons – or as Halper calls it,”warehousing.” (Warehousing) captures what’s going on better than apartheid. Warehousing is permanent. Apartheid recognizes that there is another side. With warehousing it’s like prison. There is no other side. There is us, and then there are these people that we control, they have no rights, they have no identity, they’re inmates. It’s not political, it’s permanent, static. Apartheid you can resist. The whole brilliance of warehousing is that you can’t resist because you’re a prisoner. Prisoners can rise up in the prison yards but prison guards have all the rights in the world to put them down. That’s what Israel has come to. They are terrorists and we have the right to put them down. In a sense Israel has succeeded with the international community, and the US especially, in taking out of this situation the political. It’s now solely an issue of security, just like in prisons. Halper actually predicted the warehousing phenomenon as long ago as 2008, in an important piece that offered an in depth analysis of Israel’s practices throughout the West Bank. Among other things, he compared Israel’s practice to South Africa’s creation of Bantustans, in which 3.5 million black South Africans were forced from their homes from the 1960s through the 1980s: Warehousing…is in many ways worse than the Bantustans of apartheid-era South Africa. The ten non-viable “homelands” established by South Africa for the black African majority on only 11% of the country’s land were, to be sure, a type of warehouse. They were intended to supply South Africa with cheap labor while relieving it of its black population, thus making possible a European dominated “democracy.” This is precisely what Israel is intending – its Palestinian Bantustan encompassing around 15% of historic Palestine – but with a crucial caveat: Palestinian workers will not be allowed into Israel. Having discovered a cheaper source of labor, some 300,000 foreign workers imported from China, the Philippines, Thailand, Rumania and West Africa, augmented by its own Arab, Mizrahi, Ethiopian, Russian and Eastern European citizens, Israel can afford to lock them out even while withholding from them a viable economy of their own with unfettered ties to the surrounding Arab countries. From every point of view, historically, culturally, politically and economically, the Palestinians have been defined as “surplus humanity;” nothing remains to do with them except warehousing, which the concerned international community appears willing to allow Israel to do. Perhaps most crucially, Halper places Israel’s policies and practices within a larger global context. He refers to a “Global Palestine”: a new 21st century reality in which political considerations and human rights are jettisoned in favor of a corporate-military model that seeks to control, manage, contain (and profit from) “surplus populations.” Again, from last week’s interview: (Warehousing) does not have any legal reference today but we’d like to put that in because warehousing is not only in Israel. Warehousing exists all over the capitalist world. Two-thirds of the people have been warehoused. That’s why I’m writing about Global Palestine. I’m saying that Palestine is a microcosm of what’s happening around the world. Even though Jeff Halper may be a secular Israeli anthropologist, I believe him to be a prophetic figure of the highest order. He has long been speaking hard truths on the wages of corrupt power in his country. Do we have the courage to listen to his message? This Pesach I’m thinking about the exceedingly radical message at the heart of the story we’ll retell around the seder table tonight. I’m thinking in particular about what the story tells us about power, about the ways the powerful wield their power against the less powerful, and about the inevitability of corrupt power’s eventual fall. And I’m thinking about what is possibly the most radical message of all: that there is a Power greater, yes even greater than human power. Woe betide the empire that fails to heed this message. Powerful empires have come and gone, but the Power that Makes for Liberation still manages to live to fight another day. Will the Pharoahs among us ever learn? There’s no getting around the fact that our seder story is not a neat, tidy or particularly pleasant story. That’s because – as we all know too well – the powerful never give up their power without a fight. No one ever made this point better or more eloquently than Frederick Douglass when he said in 1857: The whole history of the progress of human liberty shows that all concessions yet made to her august claims have been born of earnest struggle. The conflict has been exciting, agitating, all-absorbing, and for the time being, putting all other tumults to silence. It must do this or it does nothing. If there is no struggle there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom and yet deprecate agitation are men who want crops without plowing up the ground; they want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters. This struggle may be a moral one, or it may be a physical one, and it may be both moral and physical, but it must be a struggle. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will. Read that one around the seder table tonight. And for good measure, throw in this sentence from MLK’s “Letter from a Birmingham Jail:” We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed. It is my fervent hope that this Pesach, we American Jews, who rank among the most privileged and powerful citizens on earth, will talk openly and honestly about the wages of our power when we gather yet again to tell the story. What would it mean if we truly took to heart our tradition’s most challenging teachings: that God hears the cries of the enslaved, that God is a God of Liberation, that God stands with the oppressed, not the oppressor and demands that we do as well? Conversely (and much more painfully), are we, as Americans and as Jews, ready to confront the ways we regularly wield our own power and privilege in any number of oppressive ways at home and abroad? Might we possibly be willing to contemplate this truth: that the power that we chronically take for granted, will eventually, inevitably go the way of history as well? Indeed, if there is any message we learn at seder table tonight, it’s that, to paraphrase the words of poet Kevin Coval, all Pharoahs must eventually fall: wake in this new day we will all die soon let us live while we have the chance while we have this day to build and plot and devise to create and make the world this time for us this time for all this time the pharaohs must fall Read that one around the seder table too. I’m so proud to be part of a tradition, a people, a spiritual nation that has survived to outlast far mightier nations because it has affirmed a Power even greater. Greater than Pharaoh, greater than Babylon, even greater than the Roman empire that exiled us and dispersed our people throughout the diaspora, where this sacred vision was sown, took root and eventually blossomed forth. May the story we tell tonight inspire us to be bearers of that vision in our lives and in our world. All the best for a challenging and liberating Pesach. Friends of Tent of Nations has just shared this upsetting letter from Daoud Nasser (above left): Today, the 14th of February at 1.30 PM and as we were working on our land, specifically in the tree of life orchard, we found on three different places , papers with maps signed by the civil administration of Judea and Samaria which is the Israeli military government. The papers say that we have to stop working on the land specified on the map, because they declared it as a state land. According to them, this land doesn’t belong to us but it is a state land and we are cultivating it. The papers also say that if we want to challenge this order, we can appeal against it within 45 days in front of the military representative office. It is a shock to receive something like that after 21 years of legal battle defending our land and the right to it in front of Israeli courts. We sent those papers to our attorney in Jerusalem and he is going to appeal against it within the next days. This is just to inform you about what happened today, please be aware that the situation might get worse, please be prepared in case actions are needed. In the meanwhile, our attorney will appeal against it and we will see what kind of reaction we receive” We will keep you updated and will inform you about our next steps and how you can help. Thank you so much for your support and solidarity. Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers. Blessings and Salaam. Readers of my blog should be well acquainted with my friend and personal hero Daoud Nasser. Last year I wrote about Tent of Nations and my visit, together with twenty JRC congregants, with Daoud on his family farm. This new development is just the latest in a long history of harassment courtesy of the military administration in the West Bank – an institution that provides the shameful “legal” cover for Israel’s outright theft of Palestinian lands. Please stand by – I will forward any further news from Daoud and let you know how you can act on his behalf.

This guy has found a funny way to amuse himself. Videos about "funny guy" - All Channels Related Videos Genres This is a clip from Americas Got Talent. This guy claims to be the worlds most dangerous comic. After viewing the clip he deserves the title. electric retard is an entertaining comic strip suitable for children. it is drawn in MS Paint by a guy named eric Come check us out and join our forum. www.electricretard.com It's incredible how dumb this guy is. Two guys on catapult amusement. They are frighten to death, screaming and swearing. Interview w/ Mike Henry, who voices CLEVELAND on THE FAMILY GUY (Pt. 1 from Comic-Con 2009) Interview w/ Mike Henry, who voices CLEVELAND on THE FAMILY GUY (Pt. 2 from Comic-Con 2009) FatJewishGuy.com presents: Comedian David Feingold aka Fat Jewish Guy performing at the Comic Strip Live in New York. Funny video of an average guy arm wrestling Marvel Comic's Wolverine at WonderCon 08. Funny guy in Laurentide. He did this more than 2 hours. At a moment he was signing "I will survive". Other funny guy videos from the web In this weeks comic con related rant The... This visually impaired comic knows how t... These Balls of Fury Guys were getting he... Guy passes out at minor league baseball ... Fat Guy in audience for comics laughs hi... Hurrah! Hes going to remember this Hurra... Fetish Model Anastasia Pierce talks with... we are the best...-)

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Latest update: December 30th, 2013 Wednesday afternoon, April 10, a journal from Yeshiva University’s Cardozo School of law will be presenting former President Jimmy Carter with an award, honoring him for his “human rights record.” The Jewish Press has covered developments concerning this award and responses to it, extensively. In addition to the many alumni and concerned individuals who spoke out against the Carter Cardozo Award, four of the largest American Jewish organizations have weighed in over the last 24 hours, all expressing their disgust 0ver the decision of a Jewish-affiliated school to give kavod (honor) to someone like Jimmy Carter. On Tuesday, April 9, two organizations called on Cardozo to rescind the Carter honor. The Zionist Organization of America issued a statement, describing Carter as having a “repellant, decades-long record as an Israel-basher and promoter of Israel’s most vicious enemies, including Hamas.” The National Council of Young Israel also issued a statement calling on Cardozo to rescind the invitation to Carter. Farley Weiss, the president of the NCYI, wrote, “Mr. Carter’s well-known animus and bias towards the State of Israel has earned him widespread condemnation from Jews and non-Jews alike, and he certainly does not deserve to have any honor bestowed upon by him by an entity that has ties to the Jewish community and the Jewish State.” On Wednesday, April 10, the day of the award ceremony, the Simon Wiesenthal Center and the Anti-Defamation League each publicly criticized Yeshiva University’s law school for choosing to honor and provide a platform to someone with such a well-documented anti-Israel history. Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean of the Wiesenthal Center, said the Cardozo law students had not exercised “due diligence” before choosing Jimmy Carter as an honoree. “Had they done so,’ he told the Algemeiner, “they would have discovered that Mr Carter has never resolved his conflict with the Jewish state. His serial bias against Israel is well-documented. That alone should have led tomorrow’s lawyers, whatever their ethnicity or religion, to conclude that President Carter should not receive such an honor.” The ADL’s Foxman slammed the students, saying, “The students were wrong – they are entitled to be wrong and inappropriate and we are entitled to say that honoring former President Carter is wrong, especially for a Jewish institution…and indeed for any institution.” In response to Cardozo’s refusal to revoke the award and ceremony for Jimmy Carter, the Coalition of Concerned Cardozo Alumni issued the following statement: It is shameful that President Richard Joel of Yeshiva University and Dean Matthew Diller of the Benjamin N. Cardozo Law School are not prepared to take a moral stand and rescind the invite to honor Jimmy Carter made by the Cardozo Journal for Conflict Resolution. By providing moral cover for those who would eradicate Israel and who despise America for her democratic values President Carter has caused irreparable harm to Israelis, Jews across the world and democracies across the globe. Cardozo has now provided a similar fig-leaf to President Carter and that is a terrible shame. Jimmy Carter has an ignominious history of anti-Israel bigotry. He is responsible for helping to mainstream the antisemitic notion that Israel is an apartheid state with his provocatively titled book “Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid”, the publication of which prompted mass resignations from the Carter Center. He has met numerous times with leaders of the terror group Hamas, whitewashing their genocidal goals and undermining US efforts to isolate Hamas. And Carter’s record of slandering Israel is so voluminous that both CAMERA and Alan Dershowitz have written books refuting his lies. It is disingenuous of the Cardozo administration to justify its decision to allow the event to go ahead in the name of “academic freedom”. If a student journal at Cardozo were to invite David Duke to bestow an honor upon him, rest assured that Cardozo administration would not have remained aloof on the matter. By honoring Carter at a bedrock of the American Jewish community, Cardozo administration not only betrays the values of honesty, integrity and truth but it betrays its community of supporters who rightfully view Jimmy Carter as anathema to the aspirations of the Jewish people and the survival of the State of Israel. About the Author: Lori Lowenthal Marcus is the US correspondent for The Jewish Press. She is a recovered lawyer who previously practiced First Amendment law and taught in Philadelphia-area graduate and law schools. You can reach her by email: [email protected] If you don't see your comment after publishing it, refresh the page. Our comments section is intended for meaningful responses and debates in a civilized manner. We ask that you respect the fact that we are a religious Jewish website and avoid inappropriate language at all cost. 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WEIDMAN, JEROME (1913–1998), U.S. novelist. Born in New York City, Weidman obtained first-hand knowledge of the Jewish garment industry while working his way through college. In his first novel, I Can Get It for You Wholesale (1937), later made into a musical, he described the rise of an unscrupulous go-getter in the dress trade. His second novel, What's in It for Me? (1938), which had a similar setting, aroused a storm of protest because of its unpleasant portrayals of Jewish characters. During World War II, Weidman worked for the Office of War Information and there found material for his satire on war propaganda, Too Early to Tell (1946). In his novel, The Enemy Camp (1958), Weidman analyzes relations R. Newquist, Counterpoint (1964), 626–34; J. Barkham, in Saturday Review (July 28, 1962), 38–39: S.J. Kunitz (ed.), Twentieth Century Authors, first suppl. (1955), s.v.; L. Nichols, in: New York Times Book Review (June 15, 1958), 8. Source: Encyclopaedia Judaica. © 2008 The Gale Group. All Rights Reserved.

Yesterday Bart Ehrman posted a brief article at the Huffington Post (Did Jesus Exist?) that essentially trashtalks all mythicists (those who argue Jesus Christ never actually existed but was a mythical person, as opposed to historicists, who argue the contrary), indiscriminately, with a litany of blatant factual errors and logical fallacies. This is either the worst writing he has ever done, or there are far more serious flaws in his book than I imagined (Did Jesus Exist? The Historical Argument for Jesus of Nazareth). Amazon just reported that it shipped my copy of his book yesterday as well, so I will be able to review it soon. I am puzzled especially because this HuffPo article as written makes several glaring errors and rhetorical howlers that I cannot believe any competent scholar would have written. Surely he is more careful and qualified in the book? I really hope so. Because I was expecting it to be the best case for historicism in print. But if it’s going to be like this article, it’s going to be the worst piece of scholarship ever written. So stay tuned for my future review of his book. For now, I will address this brief article, not knowing how his book might yet rescue him from an epic fail. Attacking Academic Freedom I won’t address his appeal to the genetic fallacy (mythicists are all critics of religion, therefore their criticisms of a religion as myth can be dismissed) or his sniping at credentials (where he gets insanely and invalidly hyper-specific about what qualifies a person to speak on this subject [which as one reader pointed out is the no-true-Scottsman fallacy]), except to note that it’s false: mythicist Thomas Thompson meets every one of Ehrman’s criteria–excepting only one thing, he is an expert in Judaism rather than Christianity specifically. And I know Ehrman knows of him. So did he just “forget” when he says he knows of no one who meets his criteria? Or is he being hyper-hyper specific and not allowing even professors of Jewish studies to have a respectable opinion in this matter? As Thompson’s book The Messiah Myth introduces the subject, “the assumptions that the gospels are about a Jesus of history…are not justified.” He says (my emphasis) that “a historical Jesus might be essential to the origins of Christianity,” but is not essential to the construction of “the gospels” (p. 8), not even the sayings in them come from a historical Jesus (pp. 11-26). Thompson allows the possibility of a historical Jesus, but concludes that the “Jesus” of the New Testament is mythical, and calls for renewed study of the question of historicity generally. In his introduction to a recent anthology on the topic, which includes works by mythicists alongside historicists, Thompson (as co-author) concludes that “an unquestioning acceptance of the New Testament figures of Jesus, Paul and the disciples as historical can at times be shown to ignore and misunderstand the implicit functions of our texts” (p. 8 of Is This Not the Carpenter? The Question of the Historicity of the Figure of Jesus) and the possibility that Jesus didn’t exist “needs to be considered more comprehensively” than the dismissive attitude of historicists (like, as it happens, Ehrman) has allowed (p. 10). Currently all we have, Thompson concludes, is “a historical Jesus” who “is a hypothetical derivative of scholarship,” which “is no more a fact than is an equally hypothetical historical Moses or David.” That’s a prestigious professor of biblical studies. Is Ehrman really pooh-poohing his qualifications? Because if he is, this article becomes a massive case of foot-in-mouth. Because in it, Ehrman commits some glaring factual errors that entail he is either the one not qualified to discuss this subject, or one of the sloppiest and most careless writers on earth. I’ll get to that. But first I must remark on the significance of all this. Ehrman intimates that any professor who entertains this hypothesis will be fired or otherwise never hired, that he will in effect suffer career persecution. He does not say this with sadness, but with glee, satisfaction even. Indeed Ehrman’s own article represents a variety of this persecution: ridicule and the slandering of credentials. Thompson may have only felt free to be honest about his views after he retired, when no one could fire him or persecute his career. I personally know a few professors who themselves also feel this way: they do not touch this topic with a ten foot pole, precisely because they fear the kind of thing Ehrman is doing and threatening. They do not want to lose their jobs or career prospects and opportunities. They do not want to be ridiculed or marginalized. This makes Ehrman’s observation that no mythicist presently has a professorship (a distinction he did not make, but I am) a self-fulfilling prophecy: since Ehrman has all but explicitly stated that professors in “accredited institutions” do not have academic freedom, that indeed Ehrman opposes that freedom, verbally and institutionally, and endorses persecuting, verbally and institutionally, any who dare exercise it, who else do you think is free to challenge the consensus on this issue? Obviously, only outsiders can. The fact that that is what he observes is therefore not an argument against the merits of mythicism, but against the merits of attacking academic freedom. Few other issues have this problem. You can challenge the consensus on almost anything else in Jesus studies, but this is sacrosanct, and if you dare, “we’ll ruin your career.” Such is Ehrman’s message. The fact that he then finds this a mark against mythicism betrays his circular reasoning. No, Dr. Ehrman, it is a mark against mainstream scholarship. You are acting like it is a religion, with dogmas that cannot be challenged, lest you suffer the consequences. Just imagine all the professors who find some mythicist theories plausible, reading your article. You have just successfully intimidated them into shutting the hell up. Or at least, apparently, you hope to have. That’s not admirable. And it’s not how an institution that values the pursuit of the truth should behave. The only people who should be in danger of losing their careers in the field, and who should be criticized as such, are those who persistently fail to follow sound and defensible methods, or persistently demonstrate dishonesty or incompetence (James Tabor I fear might be going down that road; time will tell). Taking a controversial position and arguing a controversial theory does not rise to that level (much less merely considering or discussing it as a possibility). Thus, you should not attack mythicists as a group, for merely sharing a common position or theory, as if there were no distinctions among them as to capability and quality of work. That’s defending a dogma, not a method. Rather, you should attack particular and demonstrable failures of method and competence. And not just claim incompetence, but prove it. Anything else is just special pleading and ad hominem. To do it in the guise of shaming anyone who would dare side with us by denouncing in advance their competence and sanity and implicitly threatening their jobs only makes this despicable rather than merely fallacious. I’m told Ehrman might make a cleaner distinction between quality and crank mythicism in his book. But many more people will read this article than his book. It’s therefore irresponsible of him to cast this nuance to the wind. An example of proving a specific instance of incompetence is to identify a factual error that no one who claims to be an expert on the issue in question could possibly have made. There are many other errors one can make, which don’t rise to that level, but I mean here errors of a very exceptional kind. Ehrman commits several, which I find astonishing, given his competence generally (his works in Jesus studies and textual criticism are among the best available, and I have and will always recommend Jesus Interrupted as the book anyone should read who wants to get up to speed on the current consensus in New Testament and Early Christianity, being a perfect parallel to The Bible Unearthed, which plays the same role for the Old Testament). A single error would be a minor lapse; but four in one brief article is a trend. Perhaps these aren’t mistakes, and just very, very, very badly worded sentences. When I receive his book in a few days I’ll be able to check. Possibly he does a much better job there, and gets his facts right. We’ll see. But for now, I have to address this article… Mistake #1: Ehrman says “not even … the most powerful and important figure of his day, Pontius Pilate” is “mentioned in any Roman sources of his day.” False. Philo of Alexandria was a living contemporary of Pilate, and wrote a whole book about him (or rather, against both Sejanus and Pilate, documenting the ways they had persecuted Jews contrary to prior imperial edicts, cf. Schürer and Eusebius, History of the Church 2.5, who had read this book), which we don’t have (it is one of the missing volumes of the Embassy to Gaius), but we do have Philo discussing one event involving Pilate in another book we do have, written in the 40s A.D., probably while Pilate was still alive, in his retirement (Philo, Embassy to Gaius 299-305). We also have discussions of Pilate in Josephus’ Jewish War, written in 78 A.D., the same distance from Pilate’s life as the earliest Gospels are assumed to be from Jesus. But perhaps Ehrman is being hyper-specific again and only talking about contemporary attestation, although that would be disingenuous, since it is precisely this kind of early secular reference to Pilate that we don’t have for Jesus, and Ehrman is trying to say Pilate is an example of a famous person for whom we don’t have this–but, alas, we do. But even if we assume the disingenuous limiting of relevance to texts composed in “his day” we have Philo. If Ehrman is being hyper-specific as to his use of the word “Roman,” that would be even more disingenuous (as Philo’s cititizenship would hardly matter for this purpose; and at any rate, as a leading scholar and politician in Alexandria and chief embassador to the emperor, Philo was almost certainly a Roman citizen). Forgetting (or not knowing?) that Philo attests to Pilate’s service in Judea is a serious error for Ehrman and his argument, because the absence of any mention of Jesus or Christianity in Philo is indeed very odd. In fact, the loss of his book about Pilate’s reign is a very curious omission–even though Christians preserved over three dozen other books of his, amounting to nearly 900 pages of multi-columned small type in English translation, Christians chose not to preserve the book on Pilate, and that despite preserving other volumes in the very same treatise. Why? Maybe the loss was just accidental (I suspect it was because no mention of Jesus was in it, but obviously we can debate that). Christians were evangelizing in Alexandria during Philo’s lifetime. If Acts is to be believed, Jewish leaders were very concerned to oppose this and took active effort to persecute Christians. If that is at all true, we can be certain Philo knew of Christians and their claims and stories, and thus knew of Jesus. He was a leading scholar, who wrote on various Jewish sects, and a significant political figure plugged into the elite concerns of Alexandrian Jews, who even chose him to lead their embassy to the emperor of Rome. (He also made regular pilgrimages to Jerusalem: Philo, On Providence 2.64.) The only explanation for why Philo never mentions Christianity is that it was not as important to Jews as Acts depicts, but was a tiny fringe cult of no significant interest to the Jewish elite. And that is an important conclusion. Mythicists will say he doesn’t mention Jesus because there was no Jesus, but that does not explain why he doesn’t mention Christianity. Certainly, if Jesus was as famous and controversial as the Gospels and Acts depict, then Philo’s lack of interest in either the man or the threatening and grandiose claims made about him becomes improbable, but if we accept that the Gospels and Acts hugely exaggerate his fame and importance, then Philo’s disinterest goes back to being probable again. The consequence of this is that you must accept that Philo’s silence argues against the existence of Jesus as depicted in the Gospels. One must therefore conclude the Gospels substantially fictionalize the story of Jesus. I don’t think Ehrman disagrees with that conclusion, but he loses sight of it in his attempt to mock the importance of this kind of evidence, the silence of external sources. But that is not the extent of his mistake. Forgetting (or not knowing?) about Philo (or even Josephus) mentioning Pilate is bad enough. Worst of all is the fact that Ehrman’s claim is completely false even on the most disingenuous possible reading of his statement. For we have an inscription, commissioned by Pilate himself, attesting to his existence and service in Judea. That’s as “Roman” an attestation as you can get. And it’s not just contemporary attestation, it’s eyewitness attestation, and not just eyewitness attestation, but its very autograph (not a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy, but the original text, no doubt proofed by Pilate’s own eyes). And that literally carved in stone. How could anyone not know of this, who intended to use Pilate as an example? Even the most rudimentary fact-check would have brought this up. And one of the most fundamental requirements of Ehrman’s profession is to check what sources we have on Pilate, before making a claim that we have no early ones. Ehrman thus demonstrates that he didn’t check; which is an amateur mistake. I’ve occasionally made errors like that, but only in matters of considerable complexity. We’re talking about something he could have corrected with just sixty seconds on google. The lack of comparable inscriptions erected by any Christian churches or any wealthy convert at any time throughout the first century is indeed a curious thing. It can be explained (apocalyptic expectations, poverty, humility, the extremely small size of the movement). But it is still a fact, and it is not disingenuous to at least concede that we don’t have this or any comparable evidence. Explaining why we don’t have any evidence (like we have for Pilate: an inscription; a neutral contemporary text, and a neutral near-contemporary text) does not permit us to ignore the fact that we still don’t have it. And where evidence is missing, the possibilities multiply. Again, this entails things about early Christianity (whatever explanation you have for this lack of evidence, you must then accept as true about early Christianity as a whole, and that means accepting all the consequences of that fact as well). So this certainly does not prove Jesus didn’t exist. Because we can retreat to the hypothesis that he was not anywhere near as famous as the Gospels portray, and the Christian movement not anywhere near as large as Acts implies. But Ehrman didn’t make that valid argument; he made the invalid argument instead, and premised it on amateur factual mistakes. Emotion seems to have seized his brain. Seeing red, he failed to function like a competent scholar, and instead fired off a screed every bit as crank as the worst of any of his opponents. Foot, mouth. This is simply not how to argue for historicity. It’s a classic example of boner mistakes made by historicists, which calls into question their competence to speak on this issue. Usually I see this claim made of Socrates or Alexander the Great, for each of whom we have vastly more contemporary attestation than we do for Jesus, despite actual claims to the contrary made by Jesus scholars who incompetently didn’t bother to check. Thankfully Ehrman didn’t make that foolish a mistake. But making the same mistake in using Pilate puts him right in their company. Mistake #2: Ehrman actually says (and I can’t believe it, but these are his exact words): With respect to Jesus, we have numerous, independent accounts of his life in the sources lying behind the Gospels (and the writings of Paul) — sources that originated in Jesus’ native tongue Aramaic and that can be dated to within just a year or two of his life (before the religion moved to convert pagans in droves). Historical sources like that are pretty astounding for an ancient figure of any kind. He actually says we have such sources. We do not. That is simply a plain, straight-up falsehood. I can only suppose he means Q or some hypothesized sources behind the creedal statements in Paul or the sermons in Acts, but none of those sources exist, and are purely hypothetical. In fact, barely more than conjectural. There is serious debate in the academic community as to whether Q even existed; and even among those who believe it did, there is serious debate about whether it comes from Aramaic or in fact Greek sources or whether it’s one source or several or whether it even goes back to Jesus at all. The background to the creeds and sermons are even more conjectural (the creeds might go back to Aramaic sources, but none attest to a historical Jesus in the required sense of the term; and the sermons almost certainly do not go back to Aramaic sources, but are literary constructions of the author of Acts, writing in a Semitized Greek heavily influenced by the Septuagint; see Proving History, pp. 184-86 and Richard Pervo’s The Mystery of Acts, just for starters). So what Aramaic sources do we “have,” Dr. Ehrman? Do tell. And on what basis do you conclude they were written down “within just a year or two of his life”? How can you be so precise? I can only assume this is an allusion to the origin of the creed in 1 Corinthians 15:3-8 (whose origin some scholars date to the formation of the cult), which we do not have in Aramaic, and could have originated in a Semitized Greek (and therefore we cannot be certain it began in Aramaic; and it certainly is not the words of Jesus). But when did it originate? When did it originate in that form? (Since it is not a given that it hasn’t changed; it obviously did, since Paul has added to it, attaching a reference to his own revelation at the end; how many other changes did it undergo on its way to him?) More importantly, that creed contains no reference to Jesus living on earth, having a ministry, or doing or saying anything in life. All it says is that scripture says he died, was buried, and was resurrected (it notably does not say anyone witnessed this, or when it happened or by whom, e.g. it does not say Jesus was crucified by Pontius Pilate, a key component of later creeds) and only then this Jesus appeared to some people (in a fashion I know Ehrman himself agrees is not relevant to this debate: because a historical Jesus did not “appear” after his death, but a cosmic, revelatory Jesus, a product of the apostles’ imagination). The fact that Jesus is not said to have appeared or taught or done anything at all before he died is not something to just brush under the rug. Nor also the fact that the only source being given for his death and burial in this creed is scripture, whereas the source for his “subsequent” (post-mortem) ministry is given as seeing him, and that only in “revelations” (Galatians 1:11-12, which then must be the same as all the others: 1 Cor. 15:5-8). Likewise, note that many mythical godmen “died, were buried, and resurrected,” or a near enough equivalent, thus Paul stating such a creed no more attests the historicity of Jesus than it attests the historicity of Osiris (or Romulus or Hercules or Inanna or Zalmoxis or Bacchus or Adonis and so on; Osiris is the only one of these who was explicitly “buried,” but similar stories were told of all these others, e.g. Hercules was burned on a pyre, and certainly before Christianity: see Not the Impossible Faith, chapters 1 and 3). None of this entails Jesus didn’t exist, but it certainly allows the possibility. If Ehrman doesn’t see that, then he is not being objective or reasonable. Thus when he touts this conjectural, non-existent, uncertain-to-be “Aramaic” source (in fact he says sources, so we even have multiple imaginary attestation!), which in fact argues as much for the non-existence of Jesus as otherwise, as being comparable to a slam-dunk confirmation of his historicity, this is some very slipshod argument indeed. Had any of his opponents pulled that trick on him, he would not be at all kind in pointing out how fallacious it is. But alas, he cannot see that he is committing the very same fallacy, and in his effort to attack his enemies, has become just like them. That he actually says we have this conjectural, non-existent, uncertain-to-be “Aramaic” source is, by contrast, profoundly incompetent writing. I am certain he did not really mean to lie. In his emotional pique, he just didn’t proof his own article and thus didn’t notice how badly he misspoke. But that suggests he is driving on emotion and not reason or any careful process. And yet one could easily mistake him for lying. Because he actually says of this conjectural, non-existent, uncertain-to-be “Aramaic” source that “historical sources like that are pretty astounding for an ancient figure of any kind.” You mean, not having a source is pretty astounding for an ancient figure? Stated correctly, his sentence makes no sense (there is nothing astounding about not having a source). Thus, it seems as if he really did intend the readers of his article to believe we have this source he is talking about (and indeed, many a layperson will make this mistake in reading it, and I fully expect to have people repeating to me that “Dr. Ehrman said we have multiple Aramaic documents dating to just a year or two after Jesus attesting his existence,” requiring me to correct them, an annoying phenomenon I usually have to deal with from mythicists, not proper scholars like Ehrman). Altogether, these two sentences from him look more crank than anything he accuses mythicists of. A hypothetical source we don’t have is simply not “pretty astounding.” Indeed, if that’s the standard, then we have vast quantities of sources for other ancient persons. Really, if we get to count “hypothetical” sources like that, then in fact don’t we have such sources for all historical persons attested in antiquity? Mistake #3: Ehrman says “we do not have accounts of others who were born to virgin mothers and who died as an atonement for sin and then were raised from the dead (despite what the sensationalists claim ad nauseum [sic] in their propagandized versions).” Taken strictly literally, this sentence is true. But that is misleading, and therefore disingenuous. As such, it amounts to a straw man (at least of many mythicists; some few mythicists, the more incompetent of them, make that specific claim, but attacking only the weakest proponent of a position is precisely what makes this a fallacy). No competent mythicist makes this claim. Rather, they claim that virgin-born gods were a common phenomenon in the region at the time and dying-and-rising gods were a common phenomenon in the region at the time (in precisely the way these were not anywhere else, e.g. in ancient China), and so for Jews to suddenly start claiming they have one, too, looks pretty easily explained in terms of standard theories of cultural diffusion. (See my chapter on the origins of Christianity in The End of Christianity, ch. 2, pp. 53-74.) Ehrman appears to be denying this, and as such is making himself look like a crank again–in fact like an ignorant Christian apologist spewing contrafactual propaganda. That makes him at the very least guilty of really terrible writing. What I suppose he means to say is the disingenuous, strictly literal thing, but as I already noted, that would be fallacious and thus logically incompetent. Religious syncretism is the process of combining ideas from several sources, often the most popular or useful ideas in the air, into a new whole, making for a new religion. All religions are produced this way. Christianity therefore certainly was as well (it would go against all prior probability to claim otherwise, and against all the evidence as well). Judaism had a prominent component of sacrifices atoning for a nation’s entire sins, a belief in the holy spirit making Jewish kings into the sons of god (see Not the Impossible Faith, chapter 9), and a tendency toward ascetic denigration of sexuality. Paganism had a prominent component of dying-and-rising savior gods, who likewise offered ways to cleanse their followers of sins and thus procure them entry into paradise–not necessarily by their death, but always in some way, and in many cases through baptismal rituals long predating Christianity’s adoption of the same or similar ritual (see The Empty Tomb, p. 215, n. 210); and pagans had many traditions about virgin born sons of god. Note what happens when you combine the Jewish side with the pagan: you get Christianity. This is actually almost certainly what happened, and thus should not even be in dispute. This does not equate to concluding that Jesus was a fictional person; rather, even if he was historical, the attribution to him of the properties of pagan deities had to come from somewhere, and cultural diffusion is the obvious source. Ehrman appears to be denying even that latter fact, which puts him at the far extreme of even mainstream scholarship. He is implausibly implying that it’s “just a coincidence” that in the midst of a fashion for dying-and-rising salvation gods with sin-cleansing baptisms, the Jews just happened to come up with the same exact idea without any influence at all from this going on all around them. That they “just happened” to come up with the idea of a virgin born son of god, when surrounded by virgin born sons of god, as if by total coincidence. (Can you imagine it? They independently think up the idea, then go preaching around Gentile cities and discover there are all these other virgin born sons of god…why, golly gee, what a coincidence! See Not the Impossible Faith, pp. 76-78, near the end of chapter 2, where Perseus is an example recognized even by early Christians as being “virgin born”; and to which can be added, in some traditions, the virgin birth of Romulus: Plutarch, Life of Romulus 3; Ra, in the tradition that had him born of the virgin Neith; Dionysus, in the tradition by which Semele is impregnated with a potion; etc.) So does Ehrman mean we have no precedent who satisfied all those attributes at once? (A straw man.) Or does he mean we have no precedents for any of those attributes individually as available material for syncretism? (A false claim, of the most incompetent kind.) Either he is engaging in patently illogical argument, or disturbingly incompetent reporting. Neither makes him look like he’s the one to trust in this debate. Again, this makes him look like the slipshod crank. Mistake #4: This might not be a mistake, so much as an allusion to an argument in his book: he says “prior to Christianity, there were no Jews at all, of any kind whatsoever, who thought that there would be a future crucified messiah.” He knows I have presented ample evidence refuting this, both as to the fact of it (Daniel 9:26 says a messiah will die, and the pre-Christian Melchizedek scroll explicitly identifies this passage as being about the messiah, or at least a messiah who would cleanse the world of sin), and also by demonstrating its irrelevance, since even Ehrman cannot deny later Jews taught and believed in a future messiah “son of Joseph” who would be killed by his enemies (as attested in the Talmud and other Judaica), and they certainly didn’t borrow this idea from the despised heretical sect of Christianity, which means the idea was not anathema to Jews and could easily be conceived by them (and likely predates Christianity, since both Jews and Christians imagining the dying messiah’s father as named “Joseph” seems otherwise a remarkable coincidence, but that need not be supposed to make my present point). On all these points, see my essay The Dying Messiah. I can only presume Ehrman builds some sort of argument against my case in his book, which from our correspondence I predict will be fallacious (making a straw man of my evidence, selecting scholarship that agrees with him and ignoring scholarship that agrees with me, etc.). But in this article, to make so adamant an assertion, knowing full well there is a respectable case to be made to the contrary, is again crank behavior, not reasoned scholarship. Once again he is acting exactly like the worst of those he denounces. His mistake here is two-fold, in fact, since it does not merely consist of a factually questionable assertion, and one that does not entail the conclusion he wants even if the assertion were true (since imagining a murdered messiah was possible for Jews, he cannot mean to argue Christians wouldn’t have invented it, when later Jews clearly had no problem inventing one), but he leverages it into a whopper of a logical fallacy: a self-contradictory assertion. Ehrman says “the messiah was to be a figure of grandeur and power who overthrew the enemy” (certainly, that was the most common view; but it is a fallacy of hasty generalization to assume that that was the only view, especially since we don’t know what most of the dozens of Jewish sects there were believed about this: see Proving History, pp. 129-34). From this fallacious hasty generalization, Ehrman then concludes “anyone who wanted to make up a messiah would make him like that.” Now, I want to pause for a moment and perform a brief logic test. Before reading on, read that last quotation again, and ask yourself if you can see why that conclusion can’t be correct. Why, in fact, what he is suggesting, what he predicts would happen on mythicism, is impossible. Answer: the only kind of messiah figure you could invent would be one who wasn’t like that. Otherwise, everyone would notice no divine being had militarily liberated Israel and resurrected all the world’s dead. This means the probability of that evidence (“anyone who wanted to make up a messiah would make him like that”) on the hypothesis “someone made up a messiah” is exactly zero. In formal terms, by the Bayesian logic of evidence (which I explain in Proving History), this means P(~e|h.b) = 0, and since P(e|h.b) = 1 – P(~e|h.b), and 1 – 0 = 1, P(e|h.b) = 1, i.e. 100%. This means that if “someone made up a messiah” we can be absolutely certain he would look essentially just like Jesus Christ. A being no one noticed, who didn’t do anything publicly observable, yet still accomplished the messianic task, only spiritually (precisely the one way no one could produce any evidence against). In other words, a messiah whose accomplishments one could only “feel in one’s heart” (or see by revelation, as the Corinthian creed declares; or discover in scripture, as that same creed again declares, as well as Romans 16:25-26). Ehrman’s Only Evidence Ehrman lists only one single item of evidence for Jesus’ historicity that survives basic review: the fact that Paul once refers to having met “James the brother of the Lord” (Galatians 1:18-20; Paul also mentions a generic “brothers of the Lord” in 1 Cor. 9:5). Ehrman slightly misrepresents the evidence when he claims that Paul met “Jesus’ closest disciple Peter,” since Paul never once calls Peter a “disciple” (in fact, no such term appears anywhere in Paul’s letters), and never mentions him being close to Jesus at all, much less his “closest.” But Paul does say he met the brother of the Lord, and mentions “brothers of the Lord.” However, Paul does not say “brother of Jesus,” but “brother of the Lord,” which can only be a cultic title (one does not become the brother of “the Lord” until the person in question is hailed “the Lord,” thus the phrase “brother of the Lord” is a creation of Christian ideology). Yes, he may have earned that cultic title by actually being the brother of Jesus. But he could also have earned it by simply being a baptized Christian. Since all baptized Christians were the adopted sons of God, just as Jesus was (Romans 1:3-4), Jesus was only “the first born among many brethren” (Romans 8:29), which means all Christians were the brothers of the Lord (or rather, all baptized Christians were, as there is evidence to suggest one did not become adopted until baptism, e.g. Romans 6:3-10, and Christians were not baptized right away, they had to undergo a period of initiation first). Though true in that sense, possibly one was not allowed to use that specific title until they had achieved full ascension through all the grades of initiation, and thus it was a title of rank, since there is evidence in Clement of Alexandria that one did not become fully a son of God until ascending several levels of initiation. But one can question at what time that multi-stage process was begun, and exploring that would be too lengthy a digression. It’s enough to test the hypothesis that every Christian would be called brother of the Lord. The fact of it is true: as just shown, all Christians were brothers of the Lord, by their own religious conceptions; there are numerous passages in Paul that confirm this: Romans 8:15-29, 9:26; Galatians 3:26-29, 4:4-7; and Christians explicitly taught that Jesus himself called all of them his brothers in Hebrews 2:10-18, via a “secret message” in the Psalms (Psalms 22:22). They had obvious inspiration from what they regarded as scripture, the Psalms of Solomon 17:26-27, which Paul appears to reference, and which predicted that the messiah would gather a select people and designate them all the sons of god (and thereby, his brethren). This is hypothesis (1); the alternatives are (2) that only actual brothers could use this title, even though all Christians were brothers of the Lord, which would entail some policing of the use of the phrase, which is not in evidence in Paul or (3) such policing was done, but to secure the title as one of rank and not actual biological kinship. Notably, (2) and (3) both require a practice of policing the use of the exact phrase, to prevent other brothers of the Lord from calling themselves or each other Brothers of the Lord. The probability that (1) or (3) is true is greater than the probability that only (1) is true, and only on (2) is this phrase evidence of the historicity of Jesus. So if we ignore (3) and only focus on (1), our conclusion against (2) will be even stronger when we include the possibility of (3). So what happens when we compare (1) against (2)? Hypothesis (2) requires there to have been policing of the cultic title so that only biological brothers could use it or be referred to by it. Hypothesis (1) does not require that ad hoc assumption. This means (1) is the simpler hypothesis. It therefore has the greater prior probability (see Proving History, pp. 80-81). Furthermore, (1) is actually in evidence (we know all Christians in Paul’s time were brothers of the Lord in cultic fact, as all the passages above prove), whereas (2) is not (not one time in all of Paul’s letters does he ever say or even imply that this phrase means only biological brothers). (1) is therefore the most probable hypothesis. Which therefore means this phrase is not evidence for the historicity of Jesus. In Bayesian terms, this means: given the background evidence (the facts pertaining to Christians regarding themselves as all sons of God and thus brothers of the son of God), (1) has greater prior probability, and greater net consequent probability (since on the probability can’t be zero that we would have better evidence against , whereas on the evidence we have is 100% expected). [This conclusion could change if we verify that the claims in the Gospels (and subsequent sources) that Jesus had brothers are true, but that would first have to be done.] The one argument left is to suggest that if (1) were true, it would be redundant of Paul to mention that James was a brother of the Lord (that would not, however, be the case in 1 Cor. 9:5), and redundant expressions are less probable (i.e. they are unexpected). But this fails a basic test: Paul often calls people “brother” along with their name even when the context makes this redundant (Philm. 1:1, 1 Thess. 3:2, Philp. 2:25, 2 Cor. 2:13 and 1:1, 1 Cor. 16:12 and 1:1, Romans 16:23). That he would on rare occasion use the complete phrase “brother of the Lord” would not be unexpected. The more so if Peter had a brother named James, as that would require Paul in this instance to distinguish the apostle James from James the brother of Peter, in which case saying just “brother” wouldn’t do, necessitating the full epithet “brother of the Lord,” i.e. not of Peter (because Paul says he met with “Peter” and no other apostle except this James). [Nevertheless, after discussing this in comments, I do agree we should allow that his use of the phrase here nevertheless has some probability less than 100%, since it is not assured that he would have used it here. So we have to break the matter down into all competing explanations and work the numbers for each. And to argue a fortiori (Proving History, pp. 85-88) we might even lower that probability a lot, making this evidence for historicity rather than against. But these reasons are precisely why these conclusions have to be debated and not assumed.] It is also entirely possible that “of the Lord” (tou kyriou) was a later scribal addition, aiming to turn this James into the brother of Jesus by harmonization with the Gospels and later legend. These kinds of harmonizing and retrodictive emendations to the text of the NT were common, and assuming they haven’t occurred in cases, like this, where they are most likely, is a dangerously weak platform to erect a theory upon (see the slideshow for my debate with J.P. Holding on the textual reliability of the NT, linked in Debates & Interviews and my post on Pauline Interpolations). Since this is literally the only evidence Ehrman has that Jesus existed, the weakness of it should be alarming to him, not cause for arrogant displays of unshakable certainty. Ehrman might answer “we have the Gospels” and “we have Paul relating sayings of the Lord” and “we have second century references” but none of these hold up, as he perhaps knows when he admits there is a lot of mythmaking in the Gospels, for example. But one myth is as good as another. To say that the Gospels contain a lot of myth, therefore they “can’t” be entirely myth, is not valid reasoning. They might contain a historical core, they might not. That has to be determined, and is at least an honestly debatable question. As Dr. Thompson admitted. I think on full analysis they come out as completely mythical (most of the attempts to argue otherwise fail on basic logic, as I demonstrate in Proving History, chapter 5). That should at least be a respectable position, even if Ehrman or anyone disagrees with it. The second century references, meanwhile, cannot be shown to be independent of the Gospels (e.g. the reference in Tacitus, even the Testimonium Flavianum, even if it were completely genuine–and it’s not–says nothing that could not have simply been read out of a Gospel or gotten from any other Christian source relying on one), or to derive from any real source at all (e.g. the Infancy Gospels). And like any other mythic being, the Gospels would not be the earliest versions of the creed; many mythical demigods “died and were resurrected,” some were even “buried” or hung or burned or cut to pieces; that doesn’t make them historical. Thus, in Paul, that Jesus was created out of the “seed of David” (in fulfillment of prophecy) and “born of a woman” are claims that could just as easily be made of any mythical demigod (all of whom were born of a woman, and some of whom were “magically” born from the seed of their fathers, like Perseus, or even, as in the case of Dionysus, their previous corpses). They also said things–none of which were historical. Paul himself only identifies two sources for his sayings of the Lord: scripture and revelation (e.g. 1 Corinthians 11:23 in light of Galatians 1:18-20). No historical Jesus is needed there. That leaves nothing. Obviously, saying all this is by no means sufficient to demonstrate that Jesus didn’t exist. There is still evidence to debate and logic to test. But it ought to be sufficient to demonstrate that this is at least a respectable theory to consider. As long as it is considered competently and with due attention to facts and logic and productive peer debate, why not? [For a follow up to this post see McGrath on the Amazing Infallible Ehrman. For my reply to Ehrman’s response to this review see Ehrman’s Dubious Replies (Round One). And for my subsequent critical review of Ehrman’s book see Ehrman on Jesus: A Failure of Facts and Logic.]

US Groups Demand that Israel End Crackdown on Palestinian Protesters Click here to add Abdallah Abu Rahmah as an alert Disable alert for Abdallah Abu Rahmah, Click here to add Adeeb Abu Rahmah as an alert Disable alert for Adeeb Abu Rahmah, Click here to add Al Ma’asara as an alert Disable alert for Al Ma’asara, Click here to add Elbit Systems as an alert Disable alert for Elbit Systems, Click here to add Hassan Mousa as an alert Disable alert for Hassan Mousa, Click here to add Ibrahim Amirah as an alert Disable alert for Ibrahim Amirah, Click here to add International Court of Justice as an alert Disable alert for International Court of Justice, Click here to add Israeli military as an alert Disable alert for Israeli military, Click here to add Lev Leviev as an alert Disable alert for Lev Leviev, Click here to add Mahmoud Zwahre as an alert Disable alert for Mahmoud Zwahre, Click here to add Mohammad Khatib as an alert Disable alert for Mohammad Khatib, Click here to add Mohammad Othman as an alert Disable alert for Mohammad Othman, Click here to add Mohammed Barjiya as an alert Disable alert for Mohammed Barjiya, Click here to add Mohammed Khatib as an alert Disable alert for Mohammed Khatib, Click here to add Nablus as an alert Disable alert for Nablus, Click here to add Nancy Kricorian as an alert Disable alert for Nancy Kricorian, Click here to add Ni’lin as an alert Disable alert for Ni’lin, Click here to add Norwegian government as an alert Disable alert for Norwegian government, Click here to add Popular Committee as an alert Disable alert for Popular Committee, Click here to add Popular Committee against the Wall and Settlements as an alert Disable alert for Popular Committee against ..., Click here to add Popular Struggle Coordination Committee as an alert Disable alert for Popular Struggle Coordinat ..., Click here to add Rebecca Vilkomerson as an alert Disable alert for Rebecca Vilkomerson, Click here to add Riham Barghouti as an alert Disable alert for Riham Barghouti, Click here to add Stop the Wall as an alert Disable alert for Stop the Wall, Click here to add Supreme Court as an alert Disable alert for Supreme Court, Click here to add Wa as an alert Disable alert for Wa, Click here to add Zaydoun Srour as an alert Disable alert for Zaydoun Srour “International campaigns forced Israel to release Jamal Juma’ and Mohammad Othman,” said Rebecca Vilkomerson, National Director of Jewish Voice for Peace, “and civil society and governments need to continue to pressure Israel to end its effort to crush civilian protests and boycotts targeting Israeli human rights abuses.” Israeli settlements built on occupied Palestinian land violate international law. Israel’s wall, where built inside the West Bank, was ruled a violation of international law by the International Court of Justice in 2004. Eighty-seven percent of the wall has been built on Palestinian land in the West Bank, separating villages from their farmland and facilitating settlement expansion. Thirty-four residents from the village of Bil’in, which has conducted a five-year protest, boycott and legal campaign against the Wall, have been arrested since June 23, 2009. Abdallah Abu Rahmah, the Coordinator of Bil’in’s Popular Committee against the Wall and Settlements, was arrested on December 10th. Despite his outspoken advocacy of peaceful protest, Abu Rahmah has been charged by Israeli authorities with “incitement” for organizing protests that include stonethrowing, with throwing stones, and with the Orwellian charge of “weapons possession” for building a peace sign out of spent Israeli tear-gas canisters and bullet casings fired by soldiers at Bil’in protesters. Another leader of Bil’in’s Popular Committee and advocate of nonviolent protest, Mohammad Khatib, was arrested on charges of stone throwing and incitement on August 3, 2009. Khatib was released on bail while his case is tried after proving that a photograph purporting to show him throwing stones was taken when Khatib was in another country. At a hearing, Khatib’s teenage nephew stated that Israeli interrogators coerced him into signing a statement incriminating Khatib by threatening him with assault. As a bail condition, Khatib must report to a police station at the time of Bil’in protests. Mohammed Khatib and Abdallah Abu Rahmah are among the founders of the new Popular Struggle Coordination Committee (PSCC) which aims to coordinate actions of a number of West Bank towns in demonstrations, as well as supporting boycott, divestment and sanctions. Israeli soldiers arrested Adeeb Abu Rahmah, a taxi driver from Bil’in, on July 10 on charges of incitement, disturbing public order, and entering a closed military zone, though fellow protesters say they have never seen him engage in violence or urge anyone else to do so. “Incitement” is defined under Israel military law as “attempting, whether verbally or otherwise, to influence public opinion in the area in a way that may disturb the public peace or public order.” Nancy Kricorian from CodePink explained, “Israeli settlements and Israel’s wall violate international law. The route of Israel’s wall has even been ruled illegal by Israel’s Supreme Court in places like Bil’in. Therefore, it’s absurd to charge protest organizers with incitement for attempting to organize peaceful protests to save their land from illegal Israeli actions.” Since the start of regular civilian protests by the village of Ni’lin in May 2008, five residents have been killed by the Israeli military and 106 arrested. On January 12th, Israeli soldiers arrested Ibrahim Amirah and Hassan Mousa, respectively the Coordinator and a member of Ni’lin’s Popular Committee Against the Wall and Settlements, and Ni’lin activist Zaydoun Srour. On January 15th, Israeli soldiers invaded the village of Al Ma’asara, a site of weekly peaceful demonstrations for over three years, surrounded the houses of Popular Committee members Mohammed Barjiya and Mahmoud Zwahre, and threatened them with repercussions if they did not stop the village’s protests. On the night of December 9, 2009, Israeli soldiers arrested Wa’el Al Faqeeh, a nonviolent organizer from Nablus. Those who know Al Faqeeh say that he has worked tirelessly in defense of human rights and to promote the strategy of Palestinian non-violent resistance. Al Faqeeh has been detained without charge, and will be tried in a military court on January 28th. The newly released Stop the Wall detainees Othman and Juma’ were held without charges, based on secret evidence they were unable to view. Juma’, the Coordinator of Stop the Wall, and Othman, an employee there, have both organized protests in the West Bank against Israel’s wall, and advocated for local and international campaigns for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against Israel and businesses supporting Israeli human rights abuses. Othman is from Jayyous, a West Bank village which has been protesting since 2002, when Israel’s wall cut off 75% of the village’s farmland in order to facilitate the planned expansion of the Zufim settlement owned by Israeli billionaire Lev Leviev. According to Amnesty International, the conditions Israel imposed for Othman’s release “appear intended to prevent or deter him from continuing to campaign” against Israel’s wall. Othman has been forbidden from traveling abroad, and must report to police immediately when summoned. Othman was arrested in September on his return from Norway, where he had been speaking against Israel’s wall and calling for BDS against Israel. The Norwegian government had just announced that it had divested from the company Elbit Systems, which provided surveillance systems for Israel’s wall. Palestinian civilian protests are typically met with rubber-coated steel bullets, tear gas, clubs and sometimes live ammunition by Israeli soldiers, resulting in injuries and even deaths. Despite protest organizers’ admonitions, some protesters sometimes throw stones at Israeli soldiers, and some soldiers have been injured. Many of the arrested Palestinian protesters have been charged by Israel with stonethrowing. "Israel breaks international law by building settlements and the wall on occupied Palestinian land. Israeli soldiers use lethal violence against unarmed demonstrators," explained Riham Barghouti of Adalah-NY. "It is these soldiers who should be arrested for their human rights violations and not Palestinian youth who throw stones to protest the theft of their land." - Three Palestinians detained by Israel amidst protests against PA crackdown - Display of used tear gas canisters earns Bil'in activist an arms charge Israeli military court - In State Department meeting US asked to demand Israel release Palestinian nonviolent activist - Israel demands action on Palestinian protests - Israel Congratulates Arafat on Anti-US Protest Crackdown, Sends Tanks, Bulldozers into Gaza

Subscribe To our E-Newsletter Day of Despair In his new book, Nothing Like Sunshine, Ben Kamin has attempted -- and for the most part, succeeded -- in relating what it felt like to be a committed left-wing Jewish teenager at the time of the Martin Luther King Jr. assassination, and how the dream of racial harmony seemed to crumble in a matter of hours for so many liberal-minded and quite sincere white people. We are so jaded now, after so many decades of bruising history, that we may no longer be able to summon up the purity of spirit that kept us afloat back then, when we all knew that we were not only on the winning side with civil rights but that we occupied the moral high ground as well. We were not deluded, Kamin's book reminds us, as he re-examines all the emotions and drama that ensued during that crucial period in American history. Nothing Like Sunshine, published by Michigan State University Press, is a very personal book, the story of the author's friendship with a black classmate, Clifton Fleetwood (who liked to say of himself that he was "a Cadillac among men") and how that fellow feeling was undone after the murder of Dr. King. This is also a Middle Western story because the author and his classmate grew up in Cincinnati, a very small town-ish Ohio city (if one compares it to places like New York and Philadelphia), yet one that was not immune to the violence that rocked so many East and West coast urban centers in the late 1960s. The work also has national implications because, as I've intimated, many young Jews lived through similar traumatic incidents at the time, some that left scars that never healed. Kamin was luckier than most because he would not forget the scars and persisted in trying to set things right. This quest for answers and possible reconciliation is also what his book is about. As the author explains in the early pages of his memoir, Clifton Fleetwood had been his "indomitable crony" from the second month of seventh grade, which, for the author, arrived in September 1964. Kamin points out that he was "still cowering" when walking through the halls of Woodward High School, an "urban behemoth" that housed grades seven through 12, and which to him seemed "a great and strange multicultural patchwork of 3,600 students," as well as "a labyrinth of hallways and crevices and offices that -- I learned quickly and brutally -- were the stomping grounds of wandering thieves and thugs who, like bats, pounced upon innocent little seventh graders who had just matriculated from a cozy Hebrew day school of 55 monolithic tenderfoots." One day during this early period at Woodward, a "grown man, an 11th grader, with a steel-wool dark beard to frame his fierce, angry ebony face stood over me once while I lamely turned the combination of my locker. When I wheeled around, he promptly punched me in the throat and took off, along with his two chortling escorts." Kamin realized quickly that there wasn't much to be done about such random violence -- especially, not reporting them to an adult of any kind -- so he strove to offset them with whatever pleasures he might discover. Marching band was one, and it was there that he met Clifton, who was always among "the drums and cymbals, in the back section of the octagonal Band Room adjacent to the band teacher's cramped office. "Clifton, black, brash, skinny, and very musical, would eventually become the drum major of our Bulldogs Marching Band ... . Besides attempting to play the B-flat clarinet, I became the assistant drum major in due time, thanks largely to Clifton's proactive stance with the Southern-born-and-bred Mr. Raleigh Taylor," who was the band's director. Kamin makes clear at many points in the early pages that he "adored Clifton because he was funny and astute and, frankly, didn't regard me as his white friend. Just his friend." 'This Is Not for You' But then came the assassination at a Memphis motel. Kamin went to school the day after the murder -- though he was aware that the atmosphere in the neighborhood and the city at large was tense, to say the least; still, the minute he entered school grounds, he began searching for Clifton. "I had thought about Clif- ton through a mostly sleepless night," writes Kamin, "and could not wait to see him -- it seemed like the most natural thing, under the circumstances." But Kamin didn't see many familiar faces that morning as he approached school. In fact, there wouldn't be any classes that day. A Jewish basketball buddy of his, Elliott, warned him to leave immediately as he, himself, ran off. When he finally arrived at the front entrance to the school, he saw many of the students already pouring out of the doors, their faces either heated or full of fear. One nasty fellow angrily said to him, "Kamin, you whitey Jews ought to clear out of here. You all killed Dr. King. We're going to break up the stores across the street." Kamin still wondered where Clifton might be. "It was then that about 400 black students filed out of the tall entrance doors and walked out onto the front green. They had been engaged in a forlorn sit-in just inside the school since dawn. Now they were still; they had stunned countenances. With great relief, I recognized my friend Clifton." Kamin ran toward him, but was stopped "by the cold, menacing stares of his compatriots. "Clifton's eyes gave me no encouragement. As he walked past me, he said, in a quavering voice: 'No, man. This is not for you.' " What then ensued, Kamin writes, was a "morning-long, quiet protest and vigil by Clifton and his brothers and sisters. Not one white face was permitted to violate the sea of black pain. From time to time, glass was shattering across the street at the shopping center, and sirens wailed." "As city patrol cars began to accumulate around our school," continues the author, "another group of teenagers formed in a far corner of Woodward's quadrangle. We remained within view of Clifton and the other protestors, but were socially and culturally removed from them and their emotion. The crackle of police walkie-talkies blew in the air between Clifton and me. Even from across the new gulf, I could see and was shaken by the vacuum in Clifton's eyes. As the Cincinnati police, on foot, grim, tentative, spreading through both crowds, ordered us to go home, I thought I saw my country vanishing across the front green of my high school." This schism between friends -- once thought to be allies (at least in the author's mind) -- is what haunted Kamin, a rabbi and therapist, for most of his adult life. And it is what propelled him to take the journey -- to Memphis and the site of the crime; and then back to Cincinnati to search for Clifton -- which are the major incidents in this compact, enlightening book. It is not perfect -- at times, the prose is a bit heated, like the emotions that run through it -- but generally, the very particular nature of the narrative tells us in a more general sense about what was lost in the 1960s on the civil-rights front, and what can be retained -- and built upon -- in the new millennium through persistence, mutual understanding and love.

The world is blessed with thousands of heroes all over the World. They all have one thing in mind, to sacrifice themselves that others may live. And this is exactly what Irena Sendlers did. She saved some 2,500 Jewish children from the Nazi Holocaust by smuggling them out of the Warsaw Ghetto. She died at the ripe age of 98. Below is a complete story from the Associated Press: Polish Holocaust hero dies at age 98 By MONIKA SCISLOWSKA, Associated Press May 12, 12:35 PM ETWARSAW, Poland Irena Sendler — credited with saving some 2,500 Jewish children from the Nazi Holocaust by smuggling them out of the Warsaw Ghetto, some of them in baskets — died Monday, her family said. She was 98. President Lech Kaczynski expressed “great regret” over Sendler’s death, calling her “extremely brave” and “an exceptional person.” In recent years, Kaczynski had spearheaded a campaign to put Sendler’s name forward as a candidate for the Nobel Peace Prize. Sendler, among the first to be honored by Israel’s Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial as a Righteous Among Nations for her wartime heroism, died at a Warsaw hospital, daughter Janina Zgrzembska told The Associated Press. Sendler was a 29-year-old social worker with the city’s welfare department when Germany invaded Poland in September 1939, launching World War II. Warsaw’s Jews were forced into a walled-off ghetto. Seeking to save the ghetto’s children, Sendler masterminded risky rescue operations. Under the pretext of inspecting sanitary conditions during a typhoid outbreak, she and her assistants ventured inside the ghetto — and smuggled out babies and small children in ambulances and in trams, sometimes wrapped up as packages. Teenagers escaped by joining teams of workers forced to labor outside the ghetto. They were placed in families, orphanages, hospitals or convents. Records show that Sendler’s team of about 20 people saved nearly 2,500 children from the Warsaw Ghetto between October 1940 and its final liquidation in April 1943, when the Nazis burned the ghetto, shooting the residents or sending them to death camps. “Every child saved with my help and the help of all the wonderful secret messengers, who today are no longer living, is the justification of my existence on this earth, and not a title to glory,” Sendler said in 2007 in a letter to the Polish Senate after lawmakers honored her efforts in 2007. In hopes of one day uniting the children with their families — most of whom perished in the Nazis’ death camps — Sendler wrote the children’s real names on slips of paper that she kept at home. When German police came to arrest her in 1943, an assistant managed to hide the slips, which Sendler later buried in a jar under an apple tree in an associate’s yard. Some 2,500 names were recorded. “It took a true miracle to save a Jewish child,” Elzbieta Ficowska, who was saved by Sendler’s team as a baby in 1942, recalled in an AP interview in 2007. “Mrs. Sendler saved not only us, but also our children and grandchildren and the generations to come.” “I kept silent. I preferred to die than to reveal our activity,” she was quoted as saying in Anna Mieszkowska’s biography, “Mother of the Children of the Holocaust: The Story of Irena Sendler.” In 1965, Sendler became one of the first so-called Righteous Gentiles honored by theYad Vashem Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem for wartime heroics. Poland’s communist leaders at that time would not allow her to travel to Israel; she collected the award in 1983. Despite the Yad Vashem honor, Sendler was largely forgotten in her homeland until recent years. She came to the world’s attention in 2000 when a group of schoolgirls from Uniontown, Kan., wrote a short play about her called “Life in a Jar.” Yad Vashem Chairman Avner Shalev said Sender’s “courageous activities rescuingJews during the Holocaust serve as a beacon of light to the world, inspiring hope and restoring faith in the innate goodness of mankind.” Zegota, an underground organization helping Jews, paid a bribe to German guards to free her from the prison. Under a different name, she continued her work. After World War II, Sendler worked as a social welfare official and director of vocational schools, continuing to assist some of the children she rescued. “A great person has died — a person with a great heart, with great organizational talents, a person who always stood on the side of the weak,” Warsaw Ghetto survivor Marek Eldeman told TVN24 television. Anyone caught helping Jews in Nazi-occupied Poland risked being summarily shot, along with family members — a fate Sendler only barely escaped herself after the 1943 raid by the Gestapo. The Nazis took her to the notorious Pawiak prison, which few people left alive. Gestapo agents tortured her repeatedly, leaving Sendler with scars on her body — but she refused to betray her team. There Will Always be a Sendler Irena Sendler has now rested in peace but her memory will continue to inspire young people today. There were always be an Irena Sendler to come. At the opportune time some brave people will just do what she did, to risk her life that others may live. With all the global problems the world is experiencing today, we are still blessed with inspiring stories like this.

‘American official says decision to expand Gvaot settlement in wake of three Jewish teens’ killing is harmful to peace process’ Israel’s actions here do appear as something not sufficiently thought through, almost amateurish in its response to the murders in June of three teenage boys, Eyal Yifrach, Gil-ad Shaar and Naftali Frenkel. Indeed, Israel’s whole approach to the conflict between itself and those elements opposed to it on the Palestinian side seems to be lacking in any professionalism whatsoever. It’s simply a knock-down, drag-out fight to the finish with the victor taking the spoils, the defeated having to accept such losses as best they can. Of course, it’s never quite that straightforward, not even back in the days when this type of thing was far more commonplace. It should not be happening now. The world has moved on; such clumsy tactics can no longer pass without comment or censure and the US has made this very point to Israel in no uncertain terms. In other words, such a policy just adds another layer of concern to an already much deteriorated situation. If Israel is going to accrue and amass land these days in any legitimate fashion, then such acquisition must be found acceptable to the majority of all nations; it cannot be left to mere politicking and knee-jerk reaction. But land is so divisive an issue here that its allocation and ownership must be determined in a manner totally divorced from any coercive or self-serving judgements. www.laxiankey.com – ‘ for those of us with better things to do.’ Now, with a transfer procedure conducted along these lines, the process may be able to solve a whole lot of problems that the far less subtle approach adopted by Israel at present will never be able to handle.

Come to think of it, Halloween is not so much thought of as compared to other festive seasons. However, being an annual event, it may not be anything next to Christmas or other heartfelt anniversaries that get plenty of attention. Amidst all, one thing pulls it up altogether. This is Halloween party music. However, kids need an interactive mode of teaching and we all know that it is a daunting task. This is where Thanksgiving songs for kids come in. There are tonnes of songs that have been developed by professions specifically for children. Our list has the topmost collection that you can use to teach your kids other ways of giving thanks. #1. Thanksgiving Feast This is where forks meet spoons. Thanksgiving Feast is perfect for teaching kids good eating habits in the most hilarious manner. The eatables here include turkeys, mashed potatoes and dry corn among other foodstuffs. Apart from that, this turkey song for kids teaches kids how to be appreciative whenever someone does a favour. Besides, it is a family affair and since children learn best by watching, they'll grow up knowing that it is vital for family members to stay and eat together. #2. Little Pilgrim Among the top Thanksgiving songs for children is this song. Little Pilgrim is about a heroic journey of a little boy who goes on a grand adventure. Amidst the walk, he encounters numerous children, animals, women, and men summing to fifty-three. Your kids will surely love the unfolding story as they learn the concepts of Thanksgiving in the most fun way. #3. A Turkey Dance This music is encompassed with easy to learn steps, taken each at a time. Your kids will simply follow the gigs of the trainer until the end. Besides, this song is very interactive especially with the little children, making it among the Thanksgiving songs for preschool that will suit your twos and threes. Let them learn how to say thank you in the most appealing way, a trait they'll learn from this music. #4. Thanksgiving Songs – The Uncle Brothers These songs will surely make a great gift for your kids this season. Get a mix of traditional as well as fun original songs at a go. It is also a good collection to teach kids how to be thankful in several ways. With this kind of music, I am sure your kids will never be the same again. They'll actually know when and how to appreciate people including you. #5. Happy Thanksgiving – Debbie Friedman This is a product by one of the most popular creators of Jewish music of all times. It is actually a Thanksgiving folk song that was first recorded live way back in 1990. From then, it rose to be among the best Thanksgiving songs for toddlers that parents use to teach children in the most interactive manner. #6. Thanksgiving Dinner Song Lyrics for children Here comes another turkey song for kids which doubles up like a Thanksgiving tutorial. It is all about kids enjoying their delicacy dishes of muffins, stuffing and much more a turkey. For about one and a half hours, your kids will have the perfect company for their evening meal. They'll also master the basics of saying thank you in the most adorable manner. #7. Over the River and Through the Woods – Quincy Choral Society The children of the Quincy Choral Society know it best when it comes to entertaining their fellows. This music comprises of well-laid learning tunes that will appeal to not only children but the entire family alike. Besides, it is accompanied by piano making it appealing to the fullest. This song will even bring some appetite to those kids you deem as poor eaters. #8. Ten Little Turkeys song of Thanksgiving This falls under the Thanksgiving songs for kids which are also meant for numbering lessons. It will teach kids how to count from 10 to 1 in the most interactive way. The enjoyable lyrics cannot go unmentioned, with the inclusion of the 10 little turkeys moving while falling one by one. The counting reduces as the turkeys vanish each time. #9. ALBUQUERQUE Turkey This interactive kids' song is about a turkey who is finely feathered. He wobbles and gobbles not knowing that one day he'll be eaten as barbeque. Though not with Albuquerque turkey, because he is the best pet and far much better than any cat or dog you can see around. This song is the bomb when it comes to teaching kids table manners. #10. Do the Turkey Hop Song Do-the-turkey hop song surely tops in the Thanksgiving songs for preschool. If there is any better way to teach your kids how to do the gigs, then it got to be with this song. Watching them do the run, the hop and flapping their wings will just make your day. Wait! You haven't seen anything yet until they flap their wings and shake their tails like a real turkey. This is total fun and will really suit not only preschool but kids of all ages. Someone once said that when you teach a kid the way he should go, he will surely not depart from it. This perfectly explains what Thanksgiving songs for children do. A child will learn by what he sees more than what he is told. We have summed up the best songs that will surely take you a long way. If you are searching for kid-appropriate music this Thanksgiving season, be rest assured that now you have the best. Simply download your favorite selection to your iPhone or another device. Tips: In the event that you are not able to download MP3 Thanksgiving songs for kids from Spotify, use a third-party software. AudFree Spotify Music Converter is highly recommended. Furthermore, it is available for free Spotify users and will work on your Windows and Mac operating systems. Simply download and install AudFree Spotify Music Converter, open a free account, and then download all your favorite Thanksgiving songs to MP3 for offline playback. For more detailed tutorial, please visit: How to Convert Spotify Songs to MP3.

- This event has passed. Newly found relatives August 13, 2019 , 2:00 pm One event on August 21, 2019 at 10:30 am The American Jewish Experience Lecture Series, presented by the Jewish Historical Society of Central Jersey, continues with a presentation by Jack Feinstein, “After DNA Testing I Was Contacted by Cousins with Unfamiliar Last Names. Now What?” on Tuesday, Aug. 13, at 10 a.m. at Jewish Family Services, Monroe Township. Feinstein is a member of the Genealogy Club of Central Jersey in Highland Park and the Mercer County Genealogy Society in East Windsor. The lecture will be repeated on Wednesday, Aug. 21, at 10:30 a.m. at Highland Park Conservative Temple-Congregation Anshe Emeth. Both lectures are open to the public. A $2 donation is requested at the door. For more information, contact 732-249-4894 or [email protected].

Junior Infants and their 5th/6th Class buddies took another trip to the Phoenix Park on Friday. This time we practised some of the activities that will take place on Sport’s Day, such as the egg and spoon and sack race. We also played some parachute games and even made a tent! The children from 6th Class were again invited to attend the annual state commemoration ceremonies in the Church of the Most Sacred Heart Arbour Hill, Dublin. This was attended by President Michael D. Higgins and An Taoiseach Enda Kenny among other state representatives. Ellie and Kacper confidently brought up the gifts during the mass in front of a large crowd. As an inter faith ceremony, representatives from the Jewish and Islamic communities and the Catholic, Methodist, Church of Ireland and Coptic Christian churches were in attendance and offered prayers at the graveside of the 1916 leaders. Here, President Higgins laid a wreath and and led a minute of silence. The Defence Forces concluded the ceremonies at the graveside. The pupils of St. Gabriel’s really enjoyed the chance to attend these ceremonies. As a school community, we have children from many different cultures, races and faiths, all of which are embraced by pupils and teachers alike. This atmosphere of respect was shown by the children at these ceremonies. as it is shown everyday in our school. All the pupils take great pride in our school and they are a credit to St. Gabriel’s NS. After many exciting matches over the last few weeks, the finals of the St. Gabriel’s World Cup soccer competition took place in Aughrim Street Sports Centre before a lively crowd. Ian Hill of the Football Association of Ireland was on hand as referee with help from Mr. Smyth and Ms. Hyland. The semi- finals saw Nigeria come up against Ireland. While it was a close game, Nigeria came out the victors at full time. The second semi-final was another closely fought game with India and Scotland battling it out for a place in the final. After a number of excellent goals scored by both sides, Scotland eventually came out on top. The finalists – Nigeria and Scotland – somehow found the energy to deliver an enthralling final match with Nigeria the eventual winners. All the teams that had taken part showed great sportsmanship throughout and were gracious in both defeat and victory. Well done to all involved.

Giving a glimpse into the formative years of comics and beyond. Current Installment >> Installment Archives | About Alvin | AFTER THE GOLDEN AGE for 12/20/2004 Vol. 2, #152 Maybe I radiate in some unsuspected way. After all, there are many types of radiation we know little about and which, as they combine in certain individuals, tend to attract specific types of events. Maybe that's why some people always seem to be lucky, and others always wind up holding the dirty end of the stick. I'm not sure, but I can't otherwise explain some of the strange people I seem to attract as I've revealed in this column on a number of previous occasions. If you're a newcomer, check out the earlier columns and you'll find them. In any case, very true to form, and not infrequently around Christmas, there was a knock at my front door at a time when I wasn't expecting anyone. Normally, Kay and I just hunker down and stay out of the way until the holiday inanities are well out of the way. So when I heard that soft little knock yesterday, I looked out the window and noted that there was no car in the driveway, and accessing our secluded bungalow without a car suggests an unduly long hike or an arrival made possible by rather unconventional means. To that extent, I was prepared for the unusual when I went to open the door and saw a tall woman wrapped in a long dark cloak, her burnished black and slightly graying hair breaking out in chaotic strands from her hood as she removed it and introduced herself as Mary. I opened wider, inviting her in and asking at the same time, out of deference to the season and my anticipation of the unusual, "Mary? You mean, that Mary?" "Oh, no-no." Then she paused, smiled and added: "But I was named after her, of course." "Of course, " I said, helping her slip out of her cloak. "But on an important mission just the same?" I was hanging the coat in the foyer closet as I looked back and noticed her dark red dress with its green sash, as though she'd stepped off a Christmas tree, a vibrant animated oversized ornament. With beautiful green eyes too. "Actually, I'm doing this on my own. No mission, but, a problem. You see, I work for him. For Kris Kringle, I mean." She spoke hurriedly, trying to get it all out before I might stop her. "I know you've met him here before, and so, I thought, considering your background, you might be a good one to talk to." "About what problem?" I asked abruptly. "Well, you might say it's an image problem. We've all decided that the boss, Kris, I mean, has been developing an image problem. And maybe you, " I led her into the kitchen, seated her at the big round table and offered her a coffee, while asking: "Yes, why me?" "That whole idea, the notion of having an image', you created it, didn't you?" "No, not me. But my boss did. Sometime in the early fifties when he started The Institute for Motivational Research. That was in New York, at Croton-on-Hudson. The man was Ernst Dichter. And some years later, he hired me as his Research Director. But the ‘image' idea took off like a shot. A stroke of genius or a lucky shot in the dark. Suddenly, everybody had to have an image to be somebody. You see, it was a crazy idea, " I was talking very fast now, letting out some of my long pent up feelings about advertising and mass beliefs and cultish notions. ", that somebody, anybody, who has an actual presence needs an image or, a mask, by which he or she had to be known. So..." "Wait," she said. "I thought you were the one. I didn't know Dichter dreamed it up himself. But, surely, after you were there, you must have been involved in, well, straightening out bad images." "Oh, was I! Up to my ears," I admitted, even though I always thought the whole notion ridiculous. The image getting to be more real than what it represented. But, yes, I was an image fixer. That's what advertising and marketing are all about, frankly, image fixing. And predicting the future, like, way back then, I told Reliance Electric to prepare for a completely wireless world. Only, it didn't happen as soon as I thought. Only just now, we see it beginning to happen. Cell phones, radio frequency identification moving into products and households in a massive way." I broke off my train of wistful reminiscences. "So---?" She leaned toward me. "Tell me, don't you think Santa has changed?" "I can't really say. I don't pay much attwention to Christmas these days. Just a dreary, rush, rush, pell-mell holiday. Not even Christmas anymore but, well, kind of a mish-mash, a Chrismekkah, if you like. And Santa himself, well, really an ubiquitous nobody." "A hard statement, but true. He really has a bad image. A nebbich, as you Jews would say." A thought struck me. "Tell me, Mary. What about you? Are you a, Christian?" "Actually no. All of us, and we've been growing--are projections--but projections become real. Did you know that every idea once created takes on a life of its own and has its effects on many levels of reality? "So what does all this do to you?" I asked, more curious about my visitor than her so-called boss. "If you're not a real person or a spirit-- I mean, what's your role in all this?": "Those of us who work for Kris, well, no, we're essentially thoughts. Projections. You see, all thoughts are energy projections that tend to go on in endless ways according to the energy shifts they're captured by. Sometimes, we lose shape and proportion as our basic structures face new challenges. Since Kris has shrunk down to such a nebbich, as you Jewish folks might say, well, a lot of us are beginning to float off in various other directions. We're fading into other forms, indecisive forms. So you can see, if we like our present identities, we need to do something about Kris's image. And that's why I'm here." I smiled. "To consult the expert, is that it?" "Well, aren't you?" "All right, I'll tell you what I think and what I remember. When I was a kid, my mother took me to see Santa who was holding court way back then at Macy's department store in Herald Square, New York. I remember being dumped on Santa's lap in order to tell this special old man what I wanted for Christmas and how good a boy I had been. I not only knew I hadn't been, but I believed he'd know that. This fluffy red-coated old man was no kindly old geezer when I was sitting on his lap. He scared the hell out of me. He was almost like God. I couldn't stand it. I burst into tears and my mother had to take me away. That happened to a lot of kids. Because you see, Santa had stature then. He had a really powerful image. So he was very important. Not like today, when he's nothing more than part of a Christmas wrapping. You know why? Television. The kids see him endlessly on television until he just gets pared down to nothing but some decoration for the whole commercial Christmas blitz. In effect, he's become a nobody." Mary watched me for a while, nodding silently. "I guess you're right, " she said. "It's the TV. The kids get to know him and see a thousand different Santas before they see their first live one. That's the problem. So what do you suggest?" "Ah, " I said. "Now comes the hard part. But I do have an idea. Nothing you can do with Santa anymore. He's on his way to the scrap heap. What you need, along with the fading Santa image is a brand new one, more appropriate to our time. A woman! This is the era of the woman, the era when this nurturing, caring side of ourselves comes into her own. You start slowly, making her part of Santa's cortege at first, until sghe starts operating on her own, and takes over as the strong image of Christmas." "Oh dear, you mean like, Hillary Clinton?" "Never," I said with a shudder. "No, not Hillary. What Christmas needs is, a Mary." "Think about it," I said. "When I was doing this stuff I was rarely wrong. It's got to me you, Mary. It's your time." Her eyes brightened for a moment, and then we talked some more, but I could tell I'd gotten to her and her mind remained entirely fixed on my proposal. And a little while after that, she left. Keep your eyes open, my friends. I really think that maybe even by next year, there'll be a new Christmas personality taking over from the old Santa. And frankly, don't you think your kid would be more comfortable explaining his Christmas desires to a nurturing mother figure than the old bearded worn out, overplayed patriarch that used to do the job? << 12/13/2004 | 12/20/2004 | 12/27/2004 >> Discuss this column with me at my Round Table. |NEWEST||Vol. 2, #205 I have been away for months... (03/09/2008) | |03/03/2008||Vol. 2, #204 Section 4 - A legal issue as well? | |02/11/2008||Vol. 2, #203 Section 3 - Introducing Mr. Sattvapalli | |02/04/2008||Vol. 2, #202 Section 2 | |01/28/2008||Vol. 2, #201 Section 1 | |01/14/2008||Vol. 2, #200 I've been away a long time. Not just from this column, but far earlier than that... | |06/18/2007||Vol. 2, #199 Superman as more of a process than a fixed creation | |05/21/2007||Vol. 2, #198 "Bleep" team to make "Unlikely Prophet"... | |04/02/2007||Vol. 2, #197 Consciousness Visiting (Part II) | |03/26/2007||Vol. 2, #196 Consciousness visiting. My arcane subject for today. | |12/25/2006||Vol. 2, #195 Problems Crossing the Border | |11/27/2006||Vol. 2, #194 Sometime in the mid-1940s, Dan Miller, proprietor of the local general store in the rural village of Springs, Long Island, New York, acquired a painting from his new neighbor, the painter, Jackson Pollock. I knew them both in those days. But it took me many years to figure out how it might have happened. | |10/23/2006||Vol. 2, #193 In writing these stories, my imagination often ran ahead of me. I tried to consider the meaning of these outsized heroes, | |10/09/2006||Vol. 2, #192 Superman didn't become the rescuer, the savior and upholder of the law because he was made that way on some other planet... | Current Installment >> Installment Archives | About Alvin |

October 31, 2013 It's infuriating when agents outside of Israel act against Israel. But there is something uniquely distressing about damage we do to ourselves. This is what I'm seeing now -- and feel compelled to write about. The current situation is not only unacceptable, it's intolerable. First, there is the prisoner release that took place this week. Ostensibly, because we "promised" at the beginning of the negotiations. It was the lure to bring the PA to the table. No one in Israeli officialdom, it seems, ever confronts the question of why the PA would need an enticement to come negotiate in order to secure the state they keep claiming they want. They should be running to talk. When the time for releasing the prisoners approached, and there was much protest on the right, the left -- and most specifically Tzipi Livni -- made an accusation: Well, you could have agreed to freeze settlements instead (about which more following). But since you refused to stop building, we had to promise the prisoner release. Excuse me? We had to? It was incumbent upon us to make some sort of commitment that is not in Israel's best interests? What is more, Naftali Bennett, head of Habayit Hayehudi, who has been opposed to the release of prisoners, directly contradicted the Livni charge: "This is a lie and a total fabrication. [That he agreed to a release of prisoners to protect construction.] I was never presented with those two possibilities. Netanyahu told me [about the prisoner release] after it was a fait accompli." There is no question but that the PA has been pumping for release of prisoners and referring to it as a key priority. This said, however, the promise -- the commitment to release prisoners -- is not really to the PA but to Obama. That there was great pressure from the White House is certainly the case. In his eagerness to be able to boast a diplomatic achievement in this part of the world, Obama bent over backwards to find ways in which Israel might entice Abbas. But there is a time to say NO. A demonstration at Ofer Prison, where the terrorists about to be released were held; protests registered by members of the coalition; the emotional pleas of families of the victims of these terrorists -- none of it made a difference to Netanyahu, who insisted that a promise had been made and it was necessary to follow through. "The decision to free prisoners is one of the difficult I have made as prime minister," he declared. "This decision was necessary in our current reality. We have to navigate through a complex international area full of challenges." I believe that Netanyahu is severely deluded -- that within his distorted view of matters he continues to believe, in the face of much evidence to the contrary, that there are rewards from the international community for Israeli sacrifices. Yesterday, Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon echoed his boss, saying that the prisoner release was necessary because of "long-term security considerations." Time was, when this refrain was fed to the Israeli public, I would wonder if maybe, just maybe, there was a quid pro quo coming down the road for what was being done -- something we were not aware of. I stopped wondering about that a long time ago. It's nonsense. Twenty-six prisoners were released. Five to Gaza, and 21 to Palestinian Arab areas of Judea and Samaria. Those 21 were let go in the small hours of the morning on Wednesday -- the intent being to damp down media attention and celebration by the PA. It didn't work. The PA celebration was larger than it had been with the first release this summer (104 are slated for release in four intervals). Murderers, welcomed home like victors. Every single one has Jewish blood on his hands. "Terrorists who kidnapped, lynched and murdered IDF soldiers and reservists; ambushed and slaughtered unarmed hikers; killed a defenseless couple sitting in their care in a secluded forest at night..." What sort of nation releases such terrorists from its prisons? And what sort of people celebrate and adulate their terrorists? Abbas hugged and kissed them all, calling them "heroes." Yesterday he declared that there would be no agreement with Israel as long as even one Palestinian Arab remained in Israeli prisons. Also yesterday, the Israeli government announced plans for additional building over the pre-1967 line -- with final permits having been given for 1,500 apartments in Jerusalem (Ramat Shlomo, pictured) and hundreds more in communities in the large blocs in Judea and Samaria, such as Ma'aleh Adumim, Betar Illit, and Ariel. Additionally, preliminary plans were announced for another 2,000 units beyond the security barrier and outside the large blocs, in communities such as Ofra, Beit El and Shilo. The prime minister also gave the final go-ahead to a national park east of Hebrew University's Mount Scopus Campus and for a tourism and archeological center opposite the entrance to the City of David. All this building is great. But the timing of this announcement is hardly a coincidence, and the intent here on Netanyahu's part to mollify the right wing of his coalition after the prisoner release is obvious and publicly acknowledged. As could have been predicted, there was a furor over this, with Palestinian officials saying that this was "destroying the peace process." My favorite headline on this issue came from Israel National News yesterday: "Ban: Releasing Murderers is Good, Building is Bad." That about sums up the international attitude in many quarters. No criticism that Abbas kisses terrorists. That's not counterproductive to "peace." Hey, so what if it incites Palestinian Arabs to be like those celebrated terrorists? But building past the pre-1967 line, that's a whole other story. The UN Secretary-General says it's "contrary to international law." He's walking proof of our need to solidly promote the Levy Report. Interestingly, the JPost today cites an Israeli official who said that the US and the PA both knew that our release of prisoners would be accompanied by an announcement of construction plans. Now, having mentioned Ban, let me segue into a related issue at the UN -- this regarding the UN Human Rights Council. About 18 months ago, Israel walked away from participation in the Council because of a continued and egregious bias against the Jewish state. Anne Bayefsky of Human Rights Voices explains: "The Council...adopted a short permanent agenda that governs every regular session. It contains one item for censuring Israel alone [Agenda Item 7], and one general item for all other 192 UN countries combined. Thirty-five per cent of all the resolutions the Council has passed that are critical of specific states have been directed at Israel – compared to nothing on states like Russia, China, or Saudi Arabia." The Europeans and the US, warned Bayefsky, were "strong-arming" Israel into rejoining the Council. She provided a painful picture of the way in which the Council operates. Unfortunately, on Tuesday, Israel caved to that massive pressure and came forward for additional biased treatment, assurances to the contrary not withstanding. Not a good move. As the JPost editorial today, explains: "Admitting that the council has a 'strong bias against Israel,' the US delegation to the UNHRC nevertheless argued that by staying away, Israel was forgoing the opportunity to 'present its own narrative.' The trouble, though, is that nobody at the council is listening. "...Now Israel has switched tack and two days ago defended its record in a hearing that descended into a kangaroo court, where some of the most repressive regimes pass judgment on a sterling democracy and where the damning verdict [in a "Periodic Review"] had been composed long before the proceedings began." But wait, we're not done yet. This is what the Israeli representative to the UNHRC, Eviatar Manor, told the council on Tuesday: "All of them [the released prisoners] have blood on their hands; all of them have murdered Israelis. Their release, I believe, illustrates Israel's determination to reach an agreement with our Palestinian neighbors..." How pathetic can it get? We need a huge dose of national pride. Let me note here that, while Washington thinks nothing of strong-arming Israel, yesterday, Kerry observed that the US would "not succumb" to fear tactics by those opposing the diplomatic engagement with Iran. But let me end on an upbeat note. For a very brief interval of time recently, Abbas, speaking for the PA, reportedly said that he would consider an interim agreement with Israel -- something that, according to rumors, Netanyahu is seeking, since he knows that a final agreement will not happen. But very quickly thereafter, Abbas claimed he never said anything of the sort. Either he was misquoted in the first place, or he backtracked in the face of enormous anger from his own people. Now Abbas has returned to demanding everything: Israel's return behind the pre-1967 line, half of Jerusalem as a Palestinian Arab capital, etc. etc. In any event, the assessing is that whether Netanyahu may have been shooting for this -- as Deputy Minister of Defense Danny Danon has charged -- or not, the current composition of the government would make such a deal impossible. From an impeccable source, I have it that Saudi Arabia is so furious at the US for Obama's stand on Iran and on Syria, that Saudi officials are advising the PA not to cooperate with Obama. What is more, some Fatah officials are saying that they won't consider any compromise in negotiations because they don't trust Obama. If you found this post interesting or informative, please it below. Thanks!

Yitzhak Kahn was the son of a minister. He studied at the Yeshiva, but gradually developed a keen interest in secular Jewish culture and literature. This created conflicts with his father, and led to his emigration. In Australia he has contributed to the cultural life of the Yiddish speaking community with articles and public lectures. He was a noted critic in the Yiddish literary field, and was the first to write about non-Jewish writers in Yiddish. Kahn won numerous awards, including the Waislitz-Zymerman Prize in 1966, Commonwealth Grand Council in 1974, World Congress for Jewish Culture in 1977, the Central Committee Mexico Ferdinado-Heno Award in 1978 and the Itzik Manger Prize in 1988. He has written in several genres, including Australian Studies, short stories, fiction, literary criticism and autobiography.

by Michael Doliner Drury, Shadia B.: Leo Strauss and the American Right, Palgrave Macmillan, February 1999, ISBN 0-31221-783-8, 256 pages, $29.95 (hardcover) (Swans - October 10, 2005) Will the backlash from Katrina's destruction and the Bush Administration's woeful response to it finally do in the neocons? If you think so you don't know whom you are dealing with. Many have connected the name of Leo Strauss with the Neoconservatives, but almost nowhere do I find the actual content of this connection. Strauss was a professor. What did he profess? It is not sufficient merely to use Strauss's name with a sneer, for his actual thought is likely far more daring than you can imagine. The neocons are more than just the usual hacks serving the imperial masters. They share Strauss's dark vision. Shadia Drury, a professor of philosophy at the University of Regina has written an excellent book about Strauss, Leo Strauss and the American Right. According to Drury, Strauss's attitude towards liberal democracy was at the root of this thought. "Strauss abhorred liberal democracy because he associated it with the Weimar Republic whose constitution was drafted at the end of World War I." Many Jewish European expatriates, who, like Strauss, survived World War II, identified American liberal democracy with the Weimar Republic, and the weakness and decadence of Weimar with the rise of Nazism. Strauss persuaded students such as Allan Bloom, Henry Jaffa, Irving Kristol, Paul Wolfowitz, and many others of this connection. He convinced them that liberalism was the root of Nazism and therefore abhorrent. Liberalism, as Drury makes clear later on, boils down to the belief not that everyone is equal, but that everyone should be given an equal opportunity to make what he can of himself. It extols individual development at the expense of community; its principle is meritocracy. Liberalism, dedicated to individual development, has no absolutes, and tolerates such things as abortion, one step from Hitler's gas chambers. Because it has no absolutes, individuals dedicated to their own advancement only with difficulty unite into communities with common beliefs. Consequently liberal democracies are weak and a demagogue can easily overwhelm them. The weakness and nihilism of Weimar led to, or even became, Nazi Germany. For Strauss, American liberal democracy, Weimar revived, is an evil threatening all truly human existence. But Drury claims that Strauss disliked liberalism not only because he thought it might lead to nihilism and therefore Nazism. "It was the ideals of liberalism itself -- secular politics, human rights, equal dignity, and human freedom -- that he did not relish." These too he would abolish, for they were the very opposite of what he considered to be the good society. His vision was of a hierarchical society based on natural inequalities and welded together with the fanatical devotion state religion engenders. Strauss's political program is designed to counter the ills of liberalism. He believed in, and proposed, a state religion as a way of reviving absolutes, countering free thought, and enforcing a cohesive unity. Strauss argued against a society containing a multiplicity of coexisting religions and goals, which would break the society apart. He thought that ordinary people should not be exposed to reason. To rely on reason is to look into the abyss, for reason provided no comforting absolutes to shield one against the blank sky. Strauss opposed not reason itself, but reason stripped of its secrecy. Reason is for the few, not the many. The Enlightenment, the exposing of reason, was the beginning of the disaster. A reliance on reason, as opposed to religion, produced "modernity" which is nothing more than nihilism made political. The visible leaders of this state are the "gentlemen." Drawn from the best families, trained to appear like leaders, imbued with the language of honor and piety, they are the Straussian State's figureheads. Although Strauss advocated a single state religion for the hoi polloi, at the top guiding the gentlemen, was a secret cabal of atheistic "philosophers." Strauss knew, and believed that all great philosophers knew, that religion is hokum. It was necessary for the masses, but not for the philosophers who, Strauss thought, would secretly rule the state. These atheistic philosophers would supply Machiavellian wisdom to the gentlemen. Drury notes that in attributing wisdom to the philosophers Strauss is not a conservative, for conservatives believe that the traditions of the society, as they have developed over time, and not these philosophers, are the repository of wisdom. The society Strauss envisions is really only "good" for these philosophers. Everyone else is forced to live in delusion. Of course, Strauss believed average people couldn't bear the truth and needed the comfort of religion, so he argued that his hierarchical state was good for them too. Because they reason in secret, the Straussian philosophers must form a secret society in which they reveal the truth to their students, "the puppies." Their works will contain their real "esoteric" meaning hidden in a diversionary "exoteric" meaning. And since these philosophers will be political they will form a cabal in order to rule. Their job, at first, is to wean America away from its "love affair" with liberalism. To do this they will drive a wedge between liberalism and democracy. Strauss distinguishes between the two. "Liberalism is concerned with securing the greatest possible freedom for individuals. And this may very well be accomplished with a constitutional monarchy. Democracy is the rule of the people, or rule according to the will of the people or the majority." It can easily be used to suppress liberalism. By demagogic manipulation democracy, through a populist appeal, can be turned against liberalism. Since the cabal tells the truth only to its own elite members, and dissembles to everyone else for the purpose of welding together this rigid hierarchical structure, lying to the public is a virtue. Indeed all the gentlemen's speech to the public, supplied by the philosophers, is for the purpose of manipulation. The essential first task for the philosophers is to produce ideology that the gentlemen will use to attack liberalism and gain power. Strauss's hatred of liberalism is so virulent that he sees the struggle against it as a war, and in war all is fair. For this reason Straussians will use every dirty trick they can think of in the democratic arena in order to defeat liberalism. While doing so they will corrupt democracy itself. But since democracy is only a tool with which to defeat liberalism in order to institute the true Straussian hierarchical society, this is of little import. In the end they will jettison democracy if to do so is expedient. After it defeats liberalism, the cabal will still have work to do to institute the Straussian good society. Even with religion and the lies of the philosophers, the society will not be stable. "Strauss thinks that a political order can be stable only if it is united by an external threat, and following Machiavelli, he maintains that if no external threat exists, then one has to be manufactured." The fundamental political categories are "us" and "them." A sense of perpetual crisis and war cements the society together with absolute loyalty to the gentlemen. But the categories "us" and "them" do not stop at external enemies. The sense of crisis makes the struggle against internal enemies an even more desperate war of "us" against "them." Since domestic politics is also conceived in terms of war, the rules of democracy must not be allowed to prevent victory. Opponents of the ruling cabal, whatever their stripe, are "them." Indeed, since the cabal of philosophers is deceiving everyone else, even those who have joined the cause out of religious zeal are, in a real sense, "them." A small circle of initiates who repel the advances of everyone else is a feature of the Straussian State. These initiates are philosophers who rely on reason, and nihilistic reason tells them there are no rules, none, in this domestic battle. One thing the philosophers will not have to do is philosophize. Strauss believed that all the great (ancient) philosophers agreed on all fundamental points. There is really not much philosophizing left to do, for the truth is obvious to anyone who has discovered or been let in on the secret. The real truth is that justice is the rule of the stronger, who act to help "us" and hurt "them." Thus the idea of an objective good and evil that Strauss thinks necessary for social cohesion is a lie foisted upon the hoi polloi. It is just part of the religion. The philosophers are philosophers because they are in the know. They bask in the realization that Strauss thought them worthy of receiving the revelation. The good news is that philosophy is erotic. It is the pursuit of Metis, Zeus's sexy first wife. Eventually the philosophers can become political actors themselves by becoming philosopher-prophets, philosophers with a religious message promulgated for political purposes. At this point they can dispense with the gentlemen, who had been their tools, and lead openly. Strauss identifies these philosopher-prophets with Nietzsche's Overman, his vision of the highest human type. This figure's religion is a creation, a work of art, not a vision of truth. Such, in outline, is Drury's description of the Straussian political map. Drury is a careful thinker and willingly admits that some of Strauss's insights are accurate. She grants him liberalism's weakness and democracy's vulnerability to demagogues. But she rejects the necessary devolution of liberalism into Nazism, and finds the aspects of liberalism Strauss finds distasteful good. After viewing the outline of Strauss's good society I wondered what he had against Hitler. Strauss was a Jewish nationalist without being a Zionist. He thought it was essential for Jews to be without a country and advocated that Jews embrace their suffering as eternal foreigners as an essential part of Judaism. If suffering is good for Jews, war is essential, and everything is permitted in war, what did Hitler do wrong? There is much more to this book, and Drury does an excellent job of exposing the caricatures of liberalism and democracy and the fantasies of the overman that go into the Straussian picture. But what I think most important is an understanding of just what these people are up to. They are not, as some think, merely agents of Israel. Nor was the war fought merely for oil. They did not ally themselves with the religious right merely for expedience. They do not seek primarily to further the fortunes of Halliburton and Bechtel. All these are real motives, but they are peripheral motives. Their goal is to turn America into the Straussian State and rule it perpetually. Consequently, the debacle in Iraq does not seriously affect their plans. Even the Katrina aftermath might not shake them. A Straussian society needs an endless war to supply a "them" against which "we" will do endless battle. The endless war, such a horrible prospect for the rest of us, provided the political glue to transform the United States of American from a liberal democracy to a Straussian totalitarian state. Straussians would rip up American traditions starting from the Declaration of Independence, an Enlightenment document if there ever was one. Nothing could be more repellent to them than the rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. That is a description of decadent liberalism. They prefer death, bondage, and the fear of God (for others.) Straussians are orders of magnitude more subversive than any communist ever was. Paradoxically, Straussians do think that Cindy Sheehan's son Casey died for a noble cause, the transformation of the United States of America into the Straussian State. But of course they can never say so for their goal must remain a secret one. It must remain secret because the Straussian state is the good society only for the philosophers. Everyone else remains deluded and oppressed. While the "philosophers play with their puppies" the rest of us slave away or go off to die. Because Straussians think they are fighting for human life itself they will not give up. Loss of popularity will not affect them. Gaining and holding political power is a life and death matter for them. They know perfectly well that Americans are "in love with liberalism," so any public objection to their program from this source is to be expected. Liberal criticisms will not sway Strauss's followers. The failure of the Iraq war and the growing American isolation in the world do not worry them. They want an endless war and the more embattled Americans feel the more inclined they will be to accept a strong ruler and the rest of the Straussian program. Nor do they mind natural disasters like Katrina's aftermath if they can use it to tighten the control of the gentlemen. Those who suffer are, after all, "them." Strauss is certainly anything but stupid. His ideas when laid out may be a bookworm's fantasy of power, a fantasy that is now in danger of being realized, but this only proves that intellectuals can have enormous influence. Drury, a professor of philosophy herself, offers sharp but fair criticism. When Strauss accuses liberalism of trivializing life and turning it into a pursuit of cheap pleasures he has a point. And when he says that the average man cannot face nihilism and needs religion to endure existence, he may be right. But Drury denies that religion can do what Strauss thinks it can. Institutionalized religion ossifies and loses its spiritual power. When it is reduced to a political tool it is corrupted. And Drury also reminds us of the good things about liberalism. But Drury does more than that. Although Drury disapproves of Strauss, she is willing to recognize the validity of many of his perceptions. It is not sufficient for liberals to merely find reasons why Strauss is wrong, it is also important to ask about why the United States of America has fallen so very far short of its ideals. Liberal democracy, with all its good points, has become monstrous. Why? To explain how Heidegger, whom he admired, could have embraced Hitler, Strauss argued that Heidegger perceived the problem but had no cure. Perhaps we can look at Strauss in the same way. The Straussian vision is an awful one, but is it awful because we are "in love with" liberal democracy? Strauss knew that secrecy about his ideas was essential to his success. Even if we could defeat him through exposure, that would still leave an enormous real problem to solve. Why has liberal democracy in America proved so murderous? My own feeling is that class warfare has destroyed the United States far more than liberalism has, but I must admit that even if America shared its wealth fairly, it has produced something tawdry and mean. This is not to say there isn't much that is wonderful, but most of it, in my opinion, was created in opposition to the dominant culture. It may just be that Strauss is right that liberalism will result in a subhuman society. Would America have been different if the rich had not engaged in relentless class warfare? I would say so, but nothing can now demonstrate it. The cheap tawdry pleasures Americans who have succeeded waste their wealth on only demonstrate Strauss's point. That no clear alternative to Strauss's vision is easily available to us shows that this crisis of culture is ours as well as his. Drury, Shadia B.: Leo Strauss and the American Right, Palgrave Macmillan, February 1999, ISBN 0-31221-783-8, 256 pages, $29.95 (hardcover) The book can also be ordered from your local independent bookstore through Booksense. Simply enter your Zip code and click on "Go" to find all local independent bookstores near you (in the U.S.):

This page uses content from Wikipedia and is licensed under CC BY-SA. |Nickname(s): The City of a Thousand Minarets| |Founded by||Jawhar al-Siqilli| |• Governor||Atef Abd El Hamid| |• City||528 km2 (204 sq mi)| |• Urban||6,740 km2 (2,600 sq mi)| |• Metro||250,000 km2 (100,000 sq mi)| |Elevation||23 m (75 ft)| |• Density||19,376/km2 (50,180/sq mi)| |Time zone||EET (UTC+2)| |Area code(s)||(+20) 2| |Official name||Historic Cairo| |Criteria||i, iii, vi| Cairo (// KYE-roh; Arabic: القاهرة al-Qāhirah, pronunciation (help·info), Coptic: ⲕⲁϩⲓⲣⲏ Kahire) is the capital and largest city of Egypt. The city's metropolitan area is the largest in the Middle East and the Arab world, and 15th-largest in the world, and is associated with ancient Egypt, as the famous Giza pyramid complex and the ancient city of Memphis are located in its geographical area. Located near the Nile Delta, modern Cairo was founded in 969 CE by Jawhar of the Fatimid dynasty, but the land composing the present-day city was the site of ancient national capitals whose remnants remain visible in parts of Old Cairo. Cairo has long been a center of the region's political and cultural life, and is titled "the city of a thousand minarets" for its preponderance of Islamic architecture. Cairo is considered a World City with a "Beta +" classification according to GaWC. Cairo has the oldest and largest film and music industries in the Arab world, as well as the world's second-oldest institution of higher learning, Al-Azhar University. Many international media, businesses, and organizations have regional headquarters in the city; the Arab League has had its headquarters in Cairo for most of its existence. With a population of 6.76 million spread over 453 square kilometers (175 sq mi), Cairo is by far the largest city in Egypt. An additional 9.5 million inhabitants live in close proximity to the city. Cairo, like many other mega-cities, suffers from high levels of pollution and traffic. Cairo's metro, one of only two in Africa (the other is in Algiers, Algeria), ranks among the fifteen busiest in the world, with over 1 billion annual passenger rides. The economy of Cairo was ranked first in the Middle East in 2005, and 43rd globally on Foreign Policy's 2010 Global Cities Index. Egyptians often refer to Cairo as Maṣr (IPA: [mɑsˤɾ]; Egyptian Arabic: مَصر), the Egyptian Arabic name for Egypt itself, emphasizing the city's importance for the country. Its official name al-Qāhirah (Arabic: القاهرة) means "the Vanquisher" or "the Conqueror", supposedly due to the fact that the planet Mars, an-Najm al-Qāhir (Arabic: النجم القاهر, literally "the Conquering Star"), was rising at the time when the city was founded, possibly also in reference to the much awaited arrival of Caliph Al-Mu'izz li-Din Allah who reached Cairo in 973 from Mahdia, the old Fatimid capital. In Coptic the city is known as Kahire (Coptic: ⲕⲁϩⲓⲣⲏ), meaning "Place of the Sun", possibly referring to the ancient city of Heliopolis, the main seat of worship of the solar deity Ra—(or Re). The location of the ancient city is the suburb of Ain Shams (Arabic: عين شمس, literally "Sun-Eye" or "Eye of the Sun"). The ancient Egyptian name for the area is thought to be Khere-Ohe, "The Place of Combat", supposedly in reference to a mythical battle that took place between Seth and Horus. Sometimes the city is informally referred to as Kayro (IPA: [ˈkæjɾo]; Egyptian Arabic: كايرو). The area around present-day Cairo, especially Memphis, had long been a focal point of Ancient Egypt due to its strategic location just upstream from the Nile Delta. However, the origins of the modern city are generally traced back to a series of settlements in the first millennium. Around the turn of the 4th century, as Memphis was continuing to decline in importance, the Romans established a fortress town along the east bank of the Nile. This fortress, known as Babylon, remained the nucleus of the Roman, and, later, the Byzantine, city and is the oldest structure in the city today. It is also situated at the nucleus of the Coptic Orthodox community, which separated from the Roman and Byzantine church in the late 4th century. Many of Cairo's oldest Coptic churches, including the Hanging Church, are located along the fortress walls in a section of the city known as Coptic Cairo. Following the Muslim conquest in 640 AD the conqueror Amr ibn As settled to the north of the Babylon in an area that became known as al-Fustat. Originally a tented camp (Fustat signifies "City of Tents") Fustat became a permanent settlement and the first capital of Islamic Egypt. In 750, following the overthrow of the Ummayad caliphate by the Abbasids, the new rulers created their own settlement to the northeast of Fustat which became their capital. This was known as al-Askar (the city of sections, or cantonments) as it was laid out like a military camp. A rebellion in 869 by Ahmad ibn Tulun led to the abandonment of Al Askar and the building of another settlement, which became the seat of government. This was al-Qatta'i ("the Quarters"), to the north of Fustat and closer to the river. Al Qatta'i was centred around a palace and ceremonial mosque, now known as the Mosque of ibn Tulun. In 905 the Abbasids re-asserted control of the country and their governor returned to Fustat, razing al Qattai to the ground. In 969 the Fatimid conquest saw the founding of yet another settlement, further north again, called al Qahira ("the Victorious", or "the Conqueror"), the nascent city of Cairo. However Fustat remained the capital, until 1168, when the then vizier of al Qahira transferred his government there and had Fustat destroyed by fire. As Qahira expanded these earlier settlements were encompassed, and have since become part of the city of Cairo as it expanded and spread; they are now collectively known as "Old Cairo". In 968, the Fatimids were led by General Jawhar al-Siqilli with his Kutama army, to establish a new capital for the Fatimid dynasty. Egypt was conquered from their base in Ifriqiya and a new fortified city northeast of Fustat was established. It took four years for Jawhar to build the city, initially known as al-Manṣūriyyah, which was to serve as the new capital of the caliphate. During that time, Jawhar also commissioned the construction of the al-Azhar Mosque, which developed into the third-oldest university in the world. Cairo would eventually become a centre of learning, with the library of Cairo containing hundreds of thousands of books. When Caliph al-Mu'izz li Din Allah finally arrived from the old Fatimid capital of Mahdia in Tunisia in 973, he gave the city its present name, al-Qahira ("The Victorious"). For nearly 200 years after Cairo was established, the administrative centre of Egypt remained in Fustat. However, in 1168 the Fatimids under the leadership of Vizier Shawar set fire to Fustat to prevent Cairo's capture by the Crusaders. Egypt's capital was permanently moved to Cairo, which was eventually expanded to include the ruins of Fustat and the previous capitals of al-Askar and al-Qatta'i. While the Fustat fire successfully protected the city of Cairo, a continuing power struggle between Shawar, King Amalric I of Jerusalem, and the Zengid general Shirkuh led to the downfall of the Fatimid establishment. In 1169 Saladin was appointed as the new vizier of Egypt by the Fatimids and two years later he seized power from the family of the last Fatimid caliph, al-'Āḍid. As the first Sultan of Egypt, Saladin established the Ayyubid dynasty, based in Cairo, and aligned Egypt with the Abbasids, who were based in Baghdad. During his reign, Saladin also constructed the Cairo Citadel, which served as the seat of the Egyptian government until the mid-19th century. In 1250 slave soldiers, known as the Mamluks, seized control of Egypt and like many of their predecessors established Cairo as the capital of their new dynasty. Continuing a practice started by the Ayyubids, much of the land occupied by former Fatimid palaces was sold and replaced by newer buildings. Construction projects initiated by the Mamluks pushed the city outward while also bringing new infrastructure to the centre of the city. Meanwhile, Cairo flourished as a centre of Islamic scholarship and a crossroads on the spice trade route among the civilisations in Afro-Eurasia. By 1340, Cairo had a population of close to half a million, making it the largest city west of China. Although Cairo avoided Europe's stagnation during the Late Middle Ages, it could not escape the Black Death, which struck the city more than fifty times between 1348 and 1517. During its initial, and most deadly waves, approximately 200,000 people were killed by the plague, and, by the 15th century, Cairo's population had been reduced to between 150,000 and 300,000. The city's status was further diminished after Vasco da Gama discovered a sea route around the Cape of Good Hope between 1497 and 1499, thereby allowing spice traders to avoid Cairo. Cairo's political influence diminished significantly after the Ottomans supplanted Mamluk power over Egypt in 1517. Ruling from Constantinople, Sultan Selim I relegated Egypt to a mere province, with Cairo as its capital. For this reason, the history of Cairo during Ottoman times is often described as inconsequential, especially in comparison to other time periods. However, during the 16th and 17th centuries, Cairo remained an important economic and cultural centre. Although no longer on the spice route, the city facilitated the transportation of Yemeni coffee and Indian textiles, primarily to Anatolia, North Africa, and the Balkans. Cairene merchants were instrumental in bringing goods to the barren Hejaz, especially during the annual hajj to Mecca. It was during this same period that al-Azhar University reached the predominance among Islamic schools that it continues to hold today; pilgrims on their way to hajj often attested to the superiority of the institution, which had become associated with Egypt's body of Islamic scholars. By the 16th century, Cairo also had high-rise apartment buildings where the two lower floors were for commercial and storage purposes and the multiple stories above them were rented out to tenants. Under the Ottomans, Cairo expanded south and west from its nucleus around the Citadel. The city was the second-largest in the empire, behind only Constantinople, and, although migration was not the primary source of Cairo's growth, twenty percent of its population at the end of the 18th century consisted of religious minorities and foreigners from around the Mediterranean. Still, when Napoleon arrived in Cairo in 1798, the city's population was less than 300,000, forty percent lower than it was at the height of Mamluk—and Cairene—influence in the mid-14th century. The French occupation was short-lived as British and Ottoman forces, including a sizeable Albanian contingent, recaptured the country in 1801. Cairo itself was besieged by a British and Ottoman force culminating with the French surrender on 22 June 1801. The British vacated Egypt two years later, leaving the Ottomans, the Albanians, and the long-weakened Mamluks jostling for control of the country. Continued civil war allowed an Albanian named Muhammad Ali Pasha to ascend to the role of commander and eventually, with the approval of the religious establishment, viceroy of Egypt in 1805. Until his death in 1848, Muhammad Ali Pasha instituted a number of social and economic reforms that earned him the title of founder of modern Egypt. However, while Muhammad Ali initiated the construction of public buildings in the city, those reforms had minimal effect on Cairo's landscape. Bigger changes came to Cairo under Isma'il Pasha (r. 1863–1879), who continued the modernisation processes started by his grandfather. Drawing inspiration from Paris, Isma'il envisioned a city of maidans and wide avenues; due to financial constraints, only some of them, in the area now composing Downtown Cairo, came to fruition. Isma'il also sought to modernize the city, which was merging with neighboring settlements, by establishing a public works ministry, bringing gas and lighting to the city, and opening a theater and opera house. The immense debt resulting from Isma'il's projects provided a pretext for increasing European control, which culminated with the British invasion in 1882. The city's economic centre quickly moved west toward the Nile, away from the historic Islamic Cairo section and toward the contemporary, European-style areas built by Isma'il. Europeans accounted for five percent of Cairo's population at the end of the 19th century, by which point they held most top governmental positions. The British occupation was intended to be temporary, but it lasted well into the 20th century. Nationalists staged large-scale demonstrations in Cairo in 1919, five years after Egypt had been declared a British protectorate. Nevertheless, while this led to Egypt's independence in 1922, British troops remained in the country until 1956. During this time, urban Cairo, spurred by new bridges and transport links, continued to expand to include the upscale neighbourhoods of Garden City, Zamalek, and Heliopolis. Between 1882 and 1937, the population of Cairo more than tripled—from 347,000 to 1.3 million—and its area increased from 10 to 163 square kilometres (4 to 63 sq mi). The city was devastated during the 1952 riots known as the Cairo Fire or Black Saturday, which saw the destruction of nearly 700 shops, movie theatres, casinos and hotels in Downtown Cairo. The British departed Cairo following the Egyptian Revolution of 1952, but the city's rapid growth showed no signs of abating. Seeking to accommodate the increasing population, President Gamal Abdel Nasser redeveloped Maidan Tahrir and the Nile Corniche, and improved the city's network of bridges and highways. Meanwhile, additional controls of the Nile fostered development within Gezira Island and along the city's waterfront. The metropolis began to encroach on the fertile Nile Delta, prompting the government to build desert satellite towns and devise incentives for city-dwellers to move to them. Despite these efforts, Cairo's population has doubled since the 1960s, reaching close to seven million (with an additional ten million in its urban area). Concurrently, Cairo has established itself as a political and economic hub for North Africa and the Arab world, with many multinational businesses and organisations, including the Arab League, operating out of the city. Cairo's Tahrir Square was the focal point of the 2011 Egyptian Revolution against former president Hosni Mubarak. Over 2 million protesters were at Cairo's Tahrir square. More than 50,000 protesters first occupied the square on 25 January, during which the area's wireless services were reported to be impaired. In the following days Tahrir Square continued to be the primary destination for protests in Cairo as it took place following a popular uprising that began on Tuesday, 25 January 2011 and is still continuing as of February 2012. The uprising was mainly a campaign of non-violent civil resistance, which featured a series of demonstrations, marches, acts of civil disobedience, and labour strikes. Millions of protesters from a variety of socio-economic and religious backgrounds demanded the overthrow of the regime of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. Despite being predominantly peaceful in nature, the revolution was not without violent clashes between security forces and protesters, with at least 846 people killed and 6,000 injured. The uprising took place in Cairo, Alexandria, and in other cities in Egypt, following the Tunisian revolution that resulted in the overthrow of the long-time Tunisian president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali. On 11 February, following weeks of determined popular protest and pressure, Hosni Mubarak resigned from office. Under the rule of President el-Sisi, in March 2015 plans were announced for another yet-unnamed planned city to be built further east of the existing satellite city of New Cairo, intended to serve as the new capital of Egypt. Cairo is located in northern Egypt, known as Lower Egypt, 165 kilometres (100 mi) south of the Mediterranean Sea and 120 kilometres (75 mi) west of the Gulf of Suez and Suez Canal. The city is along the Nile River, immediately south of the point where the river leaves its desert-bound valley and branches into the low-lying Nile Delta region. Although the Cairo metropolis extends away from the Nile in all directions, the city of Cairo resides only on the east bank of the river and two islands within it on a total area of 453 square kilometres (175 sq mi). Until the mid-19th century, when the river was tamed by dams, levees, and other controls, the Nile in the vicinity of Cairo was highly susceptible to changes in course and surface level. Over the years, the Nile gradually shifted westward, providing the site between the eastern edge of the river and the Mokattam highlands on which the city now stands. The land on which Cairo was established in 969 (present-day Islamic Cairo) was located underwater just over three hundred years earlier, when Fustat was first built. Low periods of the Nile during the 11th century continued to add to the landscape of Cairo; a new island, known as Geziret al-Fil, first appeared in 1174, but eventually became connected to the mainland. Today, the site of Geziret al-Fil is occupied by the Shubra district. The low periods created another island at the turn of the 14th century that now composes Zamalek and Gezira. Land reclamation efforts by the Mamluks and Ottomans further contributed to expansion on the east bank of the river. Because of the Nile's movement, the newer parts of the city—Garden City, Downtown Cairo, and Zamalek—are located closest to the riverbank. The areas, which are home to most of Cairo's embassies, are surrounded on the north, east, and south by the older parts of the city. Old Cairo, located south of the centre, holds the remnants of Fustat and the heart of Egypt's Coptic Christian community, Coptic Cairo. The Boulaq district, which lies in the northern part of the city, was born out of a major 16th-century port and is now a major industrial centre. The Citadel is located east of the city centre around Islamic Cairo, which dates back to the Fatimid era and the foundation of Cairo. While western Cairo is dominated by wide boulevards, open spaces, and modern architecture of European influence, the eastern half, having grown haphazardly over the centuries, is dominated by small lanes, crowded tenements, and Islamic architecture. Northern and extreme eastern parts of Cairo, which include satellite towns, are among the most recent additions to the city, as they developed in the late-20th and early-21st centuries to accommodate the city's rapid growth. The western bank of the Nile is commonly included within the urban area of Cairo, but it composes the city of Giza and the Giza Governorate. Giza has also undergone significant expansion over recent years, and today the city, although still a suburb of Cairo, has a population of 2.7 million. The Cairo Governorate was just north of the Helwan Governorate from 2008 when some Cairo's southern districts, including Maadi and New Cairo, were split off and annexed into the new governorate, to 2011 when the Helwan Governorate was reincorporated into the Cairo Governorate. In Cairo, and along the Nile River Valley, the climate is a hot desert climate (BWh according to the Köppen climate classification system), but often with high humidity as it is not very far from the Mediterranean Sea and the Nile Delta. Wind storms can be frequent, bringing Saharan dust into the city, sometimes from March to May (see Khamasin) and the air often becomes uncomfortably dry. High temperatures in winter range from 14 to 22 °C (57 to 72 °F), while night-time lows drop to below 11 °C (52 °F), often to 5 °C (41 °F). In summer, the highs rarely surpass 40 °C (104 °F), and lows drop to about 20 °C (68 °F). Rainfall is sparse and only happens in the colder months, but sudden showers do cause harsh flooding. Snowfall is extremely rare; a small amount of graupel, widely believed to be snow, fell on Cairo's easternmost suburbs on 13 December 2013, the first time Cairo's area received this kind of precipitation in many decades. Dewpoints in the hottest months range from 13.9 °C (57 °F) in June to 18.3 °C (65 °F) in August. |Climate data for Cairo| |Record high °C (°F)||31 |Average high °C (°F)||18.9 |Daily mean °C (°F)||13.6 |Average low °C (°F)||9 |Record low °C (°F)||1.2 |Average precipitation mm (inches)||5 |Average precipitation days (≥ 0.01 mm)||3.5||2.7||1.9||0.9||0.5||0.1||0||0||0||0.5||1.3||2.8||14.2| |Average relative humidity (%)||59||54||53||47||46||49||58||61||60||60||61||61||56| |Mean monthly sunshine hours||213||234||269||291||324||357||363||351||311||292||248||198||3,451| |Source #1: World Meteorological Organization (UN) (1971–2000), NOAA for mean, record high and low and humidity| |Source #2: Danish Meteorological Institute for sunshine (1931–1960)| 6th of October City, west of Cairo, and New Cairo, east of Cairo, are major urban developments which have been built to accommodate additional growth and development of the Cairo area. New development includes several high-end residential developments. In March 2015, plans were announced for a yet-unnamed planned city to be built east of Cairo, in an undeveloped area of the Cairo Governorate, which would serve as the administrative and financial capital of Egypt. Cairo, as well as neighbouring Giza, has been established as Egypt's main centre for medical treatment, and despite some exceptions, has the most advanced level of medical care in the country. Cairo's hospitals include the JCI-accredited As-Salaam International Hospital—Corniche El Nile, Maadi (Egypt's largest private hospital with 350 beds), Ain Shams University Hospital, Dar El Fouad Hospital, as well as Kasr El Aini Hospital. Greater Cairo has long been the hub of education and educational services for Egypt and the region. Today, Greater Cairo is the centre for many government offices governing the Egyptian educational system, has the largest number of educational schools, and higher learning institutes among other cities and governorates of Egypt. Some of the International Schools found in Cairo: Universities in Greater Cairo: |University||Date of Foundation| |Al Azhar University||970-972| |American University in Cairo||1919| |Ain Shams University||1950| |Arab Academy for Science & Technology and Maritime Transport||1972| |Sadat Academy for Management Sciences||1981| |Higher Technological Institute||1989| |Modern Academy In Maadi||1993| |Misr International University||1996| |Misr University for Science and Technology||1996| |Modern Sciences and Arts University||1996| |Université Française d'Égypte||2002| |German University in Cairo||2003| |Arab Open University||2003| |Canadian International College||2004| |British University in Egypt||2005| |Ahram Canadian University||2005| |Future University in Egypt||2006| Cairo has an extensive road network, rail system, subway system and maritime services. Road transport is facilitated by personal vehicles, taxi cabs, privately owned public buses and Cairo microbuses. Cairo, specifically Ramses Square, is the centre of almost the entire Egyptian transportation network. The subway system, officially called "Metro (مترو)", is a fast and efficient way of getting around Cairo. Metro network covers Helwan and other suburbs. It can get very crowded during rush hour. Two train cars (the fourth and fifth ones) are reserved for women only, although women may ride in any car they want. An extensive road network connects Cairo with other Egyptian cities and villages. There is a new Ring Road that surrounds the outskirts of the city, with exits that reach outer Cairo districts. There are flyovers and bridges, such as the Sixth of October bridge that, when the traffic is not heavy, allow fast means of transportation from one side of the city to the other. Cairo traffic is known to be overwhelming and overcrowded. Traffic moves at a relatively fluid pace. Drivers tend to be aggressive, but are more courteous at junctions, taking turns going, with police aiding in traffic control of some congested areas. On 25 October 2009 a passenger train ran into another one near Giza, just outside Cairo. Local news agencies reported at least 25 people dead. A local resident, Samhi Saleh Abdel Al, told reporters that "the first train stopped after hitting a cow and 10 minutes later the second train arrived at full speed." One of the two trains was travelling from Cairo to Assiut, while the other was said to have been en route to Fayoum from Giza. Around 55 people were injured. Football is the most popular sport in Egypt, and Cairo has a number of sporting teams that compete in national and regional leagues. The best known teams are Al-Ahly, El Zamalek and Al-Ismaily. Al-Ahly and El Zamalek annual football tournament is perhaps the most watched sports event in Egypt as well as the African-Arab region. Both teams are known as the "rivals" of Egyptian football, and are the first and the second champions in Africa and the Arab world. They play their home games at Cairo International Stadium or Naser Stadium, which is Egypt's 2nd largest stadium, Cairo's largest one and one of the largest stadiums in the world. The Cairo International Stadium was built in 1960 and its multi-purpose sports complex that houses the main football stadium, an indoor stadium, several satellite fields that held several regional, continental and global games, including the African Games, U17 Football World Championship and was one of the stadiums scheduled that hosted the 2006 Africa Cup of Nations which was played in January 2006. Egypt later won the competition and went on to win the next edition In Ghana (2008) making the Egyptian and Ghanaian national teams the only teams to win the African Nations Cup Back to back which resulted in Egypt winning the title for a record number of six times in the history of African Continental Competition. This was followed by a third consecutive win in Angola 2010, making Egypt the only country with a record 3-consecutive and 7-total Continental Football Competition winner. This achievement had also placed the Egyptian football team as the #9 best team in the world's FIFA rankings. There are several other sports teams in the city that participate in several sports including el Gezira Sporting Club, el Shams Club, el Seid Club, Heliopolis Club and several smaller clubs, but the biggest clubs in Egypt (not in area but in sports) are Al Ahly and Al Zamalek. They have the two biggest football teams in Egypt. There are new sports clubs in the area of New Cairo (one hour far from Cairo's down town), these are Al Zohour sporting club, Wadi Degla sporting club and Platinum Club. Most of the sports federations of the country are also located in the city suburbs, including the Egyptian Football Association. The headquarters of the Confederation of African Football (CAF) was previously located in Cairo, before relocating to its new headquarters in 6 October City, a small city away from Cairo's crowded districts. In October 2008, the Egyptian Rugby Federation was officially formed and granted membership into the International Rugby Board. Egypt is internationally known for the excellence of its squash players who excel in both professional and junior divisions. Egypt currently has seven players in the top ten of the PSA men’s world rankings, and three in the women’s top ten. Mohamed El Shorbagy held the world number one position for more than a year before being overtaken by compatriot Karim Abdel Gawad, who is currently number two behind Gregory Gaultier of France. Ramy Ashour and Amr Shabana are regarded as two of the most talented squash players in history. Shabana won the World Open title four times and Ashour twice, although his recent form has been hampered by injury. Egypt’s Nour El Sherbini has won the Women’s World Championship twice and has been women’s world number one for 16 consecutive months. On 30 April 2016, she became the youngest woman to win the Women's World Championship which was held in Malaysia. On April 2017 she retained her title by winning the Women's World Championship which was held in the Egyptian resort of El Gouna. President Mubarak inaugurated the new Cairo Opera House of the Egyptian National Cultural Centres on 10 October 1988, 17 years after the Royal Opera House had been destroyed by fire. The National Cultural Centre was built with the help of JICA, the Japan International Co-operation Agency and stands as a prominent feature for the Japanese-Egyptian co-operation and the friendship between these two nations. The Khedivial Opera House or Royal Opera House was the original opera house in Cairo, Egypt. It was dedicated on 1 November 1869 and burned down on 28 October 1971. After the original opera house was destroyed, Cairo was without an opera house for nearly two decades until the opening of the new Cairo Opera House in 1988. Egypt's love of the arts in general can be traced back to the rich heritage bequeathed by the ancient Egyptians. In modern times, Egypt has enjoyed a strong cinematic tradition since the art of film making was first developed, early in the 20th century. A natural progression from the active theatre scene of the time, cinema rapidly evolved into a vast motion picture industry. This together with the much older music tradition, raised Egypt to become a center for motion picture production in the Middle East and the cultural capital of the Arab world. Egypt has also been a fount of Arabic literature, producing some of the 20th century's greatest Arab writers such as Taha Hussein and Tawfiq al-Hakim to Nobel Laureate, novelist Naguib Mahfouz. Each of them has written for the cinema. With these credentials, it was clear that Cairo should aim to hold an international film festival. This dream came true on Monday 16 August 1976, when the first Cairo International Film Festival was launched by the Egyptian Association of Film Writers and Critics, headed by Kamal El-Mallakh. The Association ran the festival for seven years until 1983. This achievement lead to the President of the Festival again contacting the FIAPF with the request that a competition should be included at the 1991 Festival. The request was granted. In 1998, the Festival took place under the presidency of one of Egypt's leading actors, Hussein Fahmy, who was appointed by the Minister of Culture, Farouk Hosni, after the death of Saad El-Din Wahba. Four years later, the journalist and writer Cherif El-Shoubashy became president. For 33 years The International Festival has awarded dozens of international superstars, including John Malkovich, Nicolas Cage, Morgan Freeman, Bud Spencer, Gina Lollobrigida, Ornella Muti, Sophia Loren, Claudia Cardinale, Victoria Abril, Elizabeth Taylor, Shashi Kapoor, Alain Delon, Goldie Hawn, Kurt Russell, Susan Sarandon, Greta Scacchi, Catherine Deneuve, Peter O'Toole, Charlize Theron, Julia Ormond, Mira Sorvino, Stuart Townsend, Alicia Silverstone, Priscilla Presley, Christopher Lee, Irene Papas, Marcello Mastroianni, Salma Hayek, Lucy Liu, Samuel L. Jackson, Tom Berenger and Omar Sharif, as well as directors like Robert Wise, Elia Kazan, Vanessa Redgrave, Oliver Stone, Roland Joffé, Carlos Saura, Ismail Merchant and Michelangelo Antonioni, in an annual celebration and examination of the state of cinema in the world today. The presidents of the Festival since it was founded in 1976 are Saad El-Din Wahba, Hussein Fahmy and Sherif El Shoubashy. This year the festival a milestone of 30 years in an annual celebration and examination of the state of cinema in the world today. The Cairo Geniza is an accumulation of almost 200,000 Jewish manuscripts that were found in the genizah of the Ben Ezra synagogue (built 882) of Fustat, Egypt (now Old Cairo), the Basatin cemetery east of Old Cairo, and a number of old documents that were bought in Cairo in the later 19th century. These documents were written from about 870 to as late as 1880 AD and have now been archived in various American and European libraries. The Taylor-Schechter collection in the University of Cambridge runs to 140,000 manuscripts, a further 40,000 manuscripts are at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America. Most residents are Sunni Muslim, while the rest of the population is mostly Christian. Al-Azhar University, based in Cairo, is considered the leading authority of Sunni Islam worldwide. Most Christians are Coptic Orthodox. Until his death in March 2012, Pope Shenouda III of Alexandria was the leader of the Coptic Orthodox Church, followed by Pope Tawadros II who became Pope on November 18, 2012, whose residence is in Cairo. Cairo has several synagogues, but few Jews remain after Israel was established and the subsequent exodus, largely due to state sponsored discrimination. Tension between members of different religions has increased recently. Cairo was ranked as the "world's most 24-hour city" in a 2011 study conducted by the social networking site Badoo, placing it well ahead of other famous big cities such as New York, London or Paris. The study's rankings were determined by measuring the amount of online activity at night versus during the day and by comparing peak-times for such activity in cities across the world. Cairo's highly nocturnal lifestyle is attributed not only to young people in nightclubs but also to the importance of cafés, which remain very active at night as social gathering places to smoke shisha, and even to the late-night public activeness of families with children. Cairo accounts for 11% of Egypt's population and 22% of its economy (PPP). Cairo is also in every respect the centre of Egypt, as it has been almost since its founding in 969 AD. The majority of the nation's commerce is generated there, or passes through the city. The great majority of publishing houses and media outlets and nearly all film studios are there, as are half of the nation's hospital beds and universities. This has fueled rapid construction in the city—one building in five is less than 15 years old. This astonishing growth until recently surged well ahead of city services. Homes, roads, electricity, telephone and sewer services were all suddenly in short supply. Analysts trying to grasp the magnitude of the change coined terms like "hyper-urbanization". Tahrir Square was founded during the mid 19th century with the establishment of modern downtown Cairo. It was first named Ismailia Square, after the 19th-century ruler Khedive Ismail, who commissioned the new downtown district's 'Paris on the Nile' design. After the Egyptian Revolution of 1919 the square became widely known as Tahrir (Liberation) Square, though it was not officially renamed as such until after the 1952 Revolution which eliminated the monarchy. Several notable buildings surround the square including, the American University in Cairo's downtown campus, the Mogamma governmental administrative Building, the headquarters of the Arab League, the Nile Ritz Carlton Hotel, and the Egyptian Museum. Being at the heart of Cairo, the square witnessed several major protests over the years. However, the most notable event in the square was being the focal point of the 2011 Egyptian Revolution against former president Hosni Mubarak. The Museum of Egyptian Antiquities, known commonly as the Egyptian Museum, is home to the most extensive collection of ancient Egyptian antiquities in the world. It has 136,000 items on display, with many more hundreds of thousands in its basement storerooms. Among its most famous collections on display are the finds from the Tomb of Tutankhamun. The Cairo Tower is a free-standing tower with a revolving restaurant at the top. It provides a bird's eye view of Cairo to the restaurant patrons. It stands in the Zamalek district on Gezira Island in the Nile River, in the city centre. At 187 metres (614 feet), it is 43 metres (141 feet) higher than the Great Pyramid of Giza, which stands some 15 kilometres (9 miles) to the southwest. This area of Cairo is so-named as it contains the remains of the ancient Roman fortress of Babylon and also overlaps the original site of Fustat, the first Arab settlement in Egypt (7th century AD) and the predecessor of later Cairo. The area is also known as Coptic Cairo as it holds a high concentration of old Christian churches including the Hanging Church, the Greek Orthodox Church of St. George, and other Christian or Coptic buildings, most of which are located over the site of the ancient Roman fortress. It is also the location of the Coptic Museum, which showcases the history of Coptic art from Greco-Roman to Islamic times, and of the Ben Ezra Synagogue, the oldest and best-known synagogue in Cairo, where the important collection of Geniza documents were discovered in the 19th century. To the north of this Coptic enclave is the Amr ibn al-'As Mosque, the first mosque in Egypt and the most important religious center of former Fustat, founded in 642 AD right after the Arab conquest but rebuilt many times since. Cairo holds one of the greatest concentrations of historical monuments of Islamic architecture in the world. The areas around the old walled city and around the Citadel are characterized by hundreds of mosques, tombs, madrasas, mansions, caravanserais, and fortifications dating from the Islamic era and are often referred to as "Islamic Cairo", especially in English travel literature. It is also the location of several important religious shrines such as the al-Hussein Mosque (whose shrine is believed to hold the head of Husayn ibn Ali), the Mausoleum of Imam al-Shafi'i (founder of the Shafi'i madhhab, one of the primary schools of thought in Sunni Islamic jurisprudence), the Tomb of Sayyida Ruqayya, the Mosque of Sayyida Nafisa, and others. While the first mosque in Egypt was the Mosque of Amr ibn al-As in Fustat, the Mosque of Ibn Tulun is the oldest mosque to retain its original form and is a rare example of Abbasid architecture, from the classical period of Islamic civilization. It was built in 876–879 AD in a style inspired by the Abbasid capital of Samarra in Iraq. It is one of the largest mosques in Cairo and is often cited as one of the most beautiful. Another Abbasid construction, the Nilometer on Rhoda Island, is the oldest original structure in Cairo, built in 862 AD. It was designed to measure the level of the Nile, which was important for agricultural and administrative purposes. The city named Cairo (Arabic: al-Qahira) was founded to the northeast of Fustat in 959 AD by the victorious Fatimid army. The Fatimids built a separate palatial city which contained their palaces and institutions of government. It was enclosed by a circuit of walls, which were rebuilt in stone in the late 11th century AD by the vizir Badr al-Gamali, parts of which survive today at Bab Zuwayla in the south and Bab al-Futuh and Bab al-Nasr in the north. One of the most important and lasting institutions founded in the Fatimid period was the Mosque of al-Azhar, founded in 970 AD, which competes with the Qarawiyyin in Fes for the title of oldest university in the world. Today, al-Azhar University is the foremost center of Islamic learning in the world and one of Egypt's largest universities with campuses across the country. The mosque itself retains significant Fatimid elements but has been added to and expanded in subsequent centuries, notably by the Mamluk sultans Qaitbay and al-Ghuri and by Abd al-Rahman Katkhuda in the 18th century. The most prominent architectural heritage of medieval Cairo, however, dates from the Mamluk period, from 1250 to 1517 AD. The Mamluk sultans and elites were eager patrons of religious and scholarly life, commonly building religious or funerary complexes whose functions could include a mosque, madrasa, khanqah (for Sufis), water distribution centers (sabils), and mausoleum for themselves and their families. Among the best-known examples of Mamluk monuments in Cairo are the huge Mosque-Madrasa of Sultan Hasan, the Mosque of Amir al-Maridani, the Mosque of Sultan al-Mu'ayyad (whose twin minarets were built above the gate of Bab Zuwayla), the Sultan Al-Ghuri complex, the funerary complex of Sultan Qaytbay in the Northern Cemetery, and the trio of monuments in the Bayn al-Qasrayn area comprising the complex of Sultan al-Mansur Qalawun, the Madrasa of al-Nasir Muhammad, and the Madrasa of Sultan Barquq. It is said that a lot of the columns found in mosques were taken from the Coptic churches because of their beautiful artistic carvings and placed in mosques. The Mamluks, and the later Ottomans, also built wikalas or caravanserais to house merchants and goods due to the important role of trade and commerce in Cairo's economy. The most famous example still intact today is the Wikala al-Ghuri, which nowadays also hosts regular performances by the Al-Tannoura Egyptian Heritage Dance Troupe. The famous Khan al-Khalili (see below) is a commercial hub which also integrated caravanserais (also known as khans). Ibn Tulun Mosque, courtyard and minaret The courtyard of the Sultan Hassan mosque-madrasa. Sultan al-Ghuri complex, with mausoleum and khanqah on the left, and madrasa on the right. The dome of Sultan Qaytbay's mausoleum. A medieval gate, Bab al-Ghuri, in the Khan El-Khalili market. The Citadel is a fortified enclosure begun by Salah al-Din in 1176 AD on an outcrop of the Muqattam Hills as part of a large defensive system to protect both Cairo to the north and Fustat to the southwest. It was the center of Egyptian government and residence of its rulers until 1874, when Khedive Isma'il moved to 'Abdin Palace. It is still occupied by the military today, but is now open as a tourist attraction comprising, notably, the National Military Museum, the 14th century Mosque of al-Nasir Muhammad, and the 19th century Mosque of Muhammad Ali which commands a dominant position on Cairo's skyline. Khan el-Khalili is an ancient bazaar, or marketplace adjacent to the Al-Hussein Mosque. It dates back to 1385, when Amir Jarkas el-Khalili built a large caravanserai, or khan. (A caravanserai is a hotel for traders, and usually the focal point for any surrounding area.) This original carvanserai building was demolished by Sultan al-Ghuri, who rebuilt it as a new commercial complex in the early 16th century, forming the basis for the network of souqs existing today. Many medieval elements remain today, including the ornate Mamluk-style gateways. Today, the Khan el-Khalili is a major tourist attraction and popular stop for tour groups. Cairo is an expanding city, which has led to many environmental problems. The air pollution in Cairo is a matter of serious concern. Greater Cairo's volatile aromatic hydrocarbon levels are higher than many other similar cities. Air quality measurements in Cairo have also been recording dangerous levels of lead, carbon dioxide, sulphur dioxide, and suspended particulate matter concentrations due to decades of unregulated vehicle emissions, urban industrial operations, and chaff and trash burning. There are over 4,500,000 cars on the streets of Cairo, 60% of which are over 10 years old, and therefore lack modern emission cutting features like catalytic converters. Cairo has a very poor dispersion factor because of lack of rain and its layout of tall buildings and narrow streets, which create a bowl effect. In recent years, a mysterious black cloud (as Egyptians refer to it) appeared over Cairo every autumn and causes serious respiratory diseases and eye irritations for the city's citizens. Tourists who are not familiar with such high levels of pollution must take extra care. Cairo also has many unregistered lead and copper smelters which heavily pollute the city. The results of this has been a permanent haze over the city with particulate matter in the air reaching over three times normal levels. It is estimated that 10,000 to 25,000 people a year in Cairo die due to air pollution-related diseases. Lead has been shown to cause harm to the central nervous system and neurotoxicity particularly in children. In 1995, the first environmental acts were introduced and the situation has seen some improvement with 36 air monitoring stations and emissions tests on cars. Twenty thousand buses have also been commissioned to the city to improve congestion levels, which are very high. The city also suffers from a high level of land pollution. Cairo produces 10,000 tons of waste material each day, 4,000 tons of which is not collected or managed. This once again is a huge health hazard and the Egyptian Government is looking for ways to combat this. The Cairo Cleaning and Beautification Agency was founded to collect and recycle the waste; however, they also work with the Zabbaleen (or Zabaleen), a community that has been collecting and recycling Cairo's waste since the turn of the 20th century and live in an area known locally as Manshiyat naser. Both are working together to pick up as much waste as possible within the city limits, though it remains a pressing problem. The city also suffers from water pollution as the sewer system tends to fail and overflow. On occasion, sewage has escaped onto the streets to create a health hazard. This problem is hoped to be solved by a new sewer system funded by the European Union, which could cope with the demand of the city. The dangerously high levels of mercury in the city's water system has global health officials concerned over related health risks. |Capital of Egypt

17 Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel:I am the Lord your God, who teaches you for your own good, who leads you in the way you should go. 18 O that you had paid attention to my commandments! Then your prosperity would have been like a river, and your success like the waves of the sea; (Isaiah 47:17-18) This is from the first reading at Mass yesterday. Don't you love that the Lord teaches us for our own good and leads us in the way we should go? I was very surprised last week while talking to a sidewalk counselor outside of a Chicago abortion facility. This woman is extremely faithful to her calling to be there before and after women visit the facility. Our own group goes to this clinic one Saturday a month, and to another in the suburbs one Saturday a month. This woman goes to this clinic every single Saturday morning. Not just for an hour and a half, as our group does, but from 6:45 a.m. to 11:00 a.m or later. Last Saturday was really super cold. I could not feel my feet past the arch. My toes were still there, but I could no longer feel them. This woman dressed more intelligently than me. She knew about "smart wool" socks that kept your toes from going numb. |St. John Cantius Church, Chicago| He had said, "It isn't a teaching of the Church, but a doctor of the Church, St. Thomas Aquinas, said the suffering of purgatory is greater than any suffering that can be endured on this earth." That isn't actually a correct quote by the way. I'll have that in a moment for you. But geez, that is scary isn't it? I had come to think of purgatory along the lines of what St. Catherine of Genoa spoke of, that the real knowledge of the love of God and his holiness purified her with moans and groans and led her to do penances, but I no longer thought of it as "fire" after reading her account. Still there is passage from The Way of Love by Sr. Josefa Menendez, a personal revelation--again not a teaching of the church that describe it more of a place. I am not scared of my personal judgment. Are you? I know I am a sinner, I know that I do not resemble Jesus, meek and humble of heart, rich in compassion. But for some reason, I trust that he has me, that he has grasped me, and he has made me his own. (see Philippians 3:12) Do you pray when you read the Bible? Do you believe that the Holy Spirit uses Scripture to "teach you for your own good"? One of the objectives I feel is impressed on me most, by the Holy Spirit, while preparing and teaching my 1st and 2nd grade Religion School class, is to teach them that reading the Bible can be like reading a love letter from God to us. I really try to get the kids hooked on reading the Bible, that they will learn things about God's Glory and Power and Love and Mercy in its words that are actually purposely hidden from them in the things they will hear in the world. I teach them that there is a difference between a person that goes to church or tries to be a good person, and a person that faithfully turns to the Bible to be taught and loved by God in its words. There are people that go to church but don't understand the commandments to love and to forgive and to pray for our enemies. There are people that go to church but don't understand that we are forbidden to indulge in horoscopes or fortune telling. There are people that go to church and don't understand the clear warnings of St. Paul on drunkenness and fornication. (see Ephesians 5:3) Of course it doesn't help when we get this reading at church and the priest squirms while it is proclaimed and then doesn't touch it with a 100 foot pole during the homily. There are people that have been brought up Catholic or Protestant or Jewish and then personally use the Lord's name in vain, including the Lord Jesus Christ's name in vain repeatedly during the day. You know what? I've never heard a priest mention why this is sinful, shameful and sad in a homily at Mass? I've heard a priest speak powerfully on how powerful the name of Jesus is, but not to mention how horrific it is that someone "who has been given much" (see Luke 12:47-49) i.e. the gift of faith and knowledge of Christ's sacrifice, could then routinely use the name of Jesus Christ in place of a curse word when they are angry. How many parents model this behavior for their children? One of the first things that I think is impressed on someone that reads Scripture is that the holiness of God and his name are connected. When I hear people say "Jesus Christ" like other people use the f-bomb, it hurts. I pray for them. I pray the Divine Praises after Communion in reparation for their blasphemy. There seems to be quite a bit of this at my current job. During the third week we were doing a production conversion and a Chinese woman that probably knows very little about Jesus Christ, kept saying his name as a swear with a very think Chinese accent. Then another project manager consultant was put in a room with me. She seems to have gone to Catholic high school and she too was regularly saying Jesus Christ in anger throughout the day. This seems to have dropped off since I let her know I get over to the Daily Mass at Old St. Patrick's a couple times a week. Sorry for the rant there. Back to my point . . . the Lord does teach us and guide us on our path. Is he doing this for you? He has undeniably been doing this for me in abundance since as long as I can remember. Truly the cup of my understanding, my faith, my love for Him has been growing as a result of what he began teaching me through Holy Scripture, through the saints, through people pursuing holiness and greater love of God and neighbor, and through prayer throughout my life. (see Psalm 23:5) When you read passages like the following, you know he is telling you, "come closer. I want to hold you close to my heart. I love you more than you can understand. Trust in me! It hurts me when you don't trust in me!" The Lord called me before I was born, while I was in my mother’s womb he named me. (Isaiah 49:1) 14 But Zion said, ‘The Lord has forsaken me, my Lord has forgotten me.’ 15 Can a woman forget her nursing-child, or show no compassion for the child of her womb?Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you. 16 See, I have inscribed you on the palms of my hands; (Isaiah 49:14-16) Besides scripture, two saints in particular teach us what it means to trust God and to trust him wholeheartedly for our salvation because his mercy, his Divine Mercy, which gushed from his pierced side in the form of his Precious blood and water. He is our mediator before the justice of God. These two saints are St. Faustina and St. Therese of the Child Jesus and of the Holy Face. St. Therese's Offering to Merciful Love (long version) focuses on the fact that there is nothing we can do to merit heaven, instead we rely on the love of God who spared not his only beloved Son (John 3:16), and on the merits of Jesus, on his heart burning with Love. Since You loved me so much as to give me Your only Son as my Savior and my Spouse, the infinite treasures of His merits are mine. I offer them to You with gladness, begging You to look upon me only in the Face of Jesus and in His heart burning with Love. We should all realize that God's condescension to save us, his Mercy is greater than we can imagine. How quickly we in our humanity are to overlook a coldness or slight from a friend we love. How quickly I grab my own child in my arms when he looks at me with pleading eyes, and is yelling through tears, "Mom, I am sorry," looking for forgiveness and a hug. God is Pure Love. God is Kindness. God is Compassion. God is Mercy. Why would I fear him when he has already led me in the path I should go. And what is that path? It is to follow the Good Shepherd by reading, knowing, and following his teaching and example. By asking him to hold us close to his heart that we might be transformed by his love and mercy. I told this woman that I don't think it will be as fearful as she imagines. I think she will experience different emotions than fear. We have the hope and assurance that we will see Jesus Christ face to face when we die. He will be shining in glory, brighter than the sun, his clothes brighter than the snow as was described in the Gospel accounts of the Transfiguration. His eyes will be full of love and mercy toward us. We may be filled with deep regret, that we may even experience viscerally like St. Catherine of Genoa writes, that we were anything less than adoring, loving and seeking after his will and following his commandments faithfully in life. But how will we not be ecstatically happy, filled with joy beyond this life's comprehension, as one priest said, "take the happiest you've been in your life and multiply it by infinity", to have the privilege of being in front of him, and knowing that he has given us the gift of eternal life with him? This is what St. Thomas Aquinas actually said about purgatory: St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologia, Two Notes on Purgatory It seems that the pains of purgatory are greater than all pains of this life. The pain of loss (that is, the pain of delay in coming to the beatific vision) is the greater of the two types of pain in purgatory. The lesser is the pain of sense.

Over the last month, students and faculty named their favorite holiday movies from their childhoods. With the holidays rapidly approaching, movie theaters are preparing. This year, some expected hits include ‘Rogue One: A Star Wars Story,’ and ‘Office Christmas Party.’ As children, many students grew up watching classics such as “A Christmas Carol,” “How the Grinch Stole Christmas,” “A Christmas Story” and “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.” Now, as adults, many students still watch these films and continue to enjoy seeing them. “I like ‘It’s a Wonderful Life,’ It had a great actor named James Stewart and [he is] faced with all kinds of problems and possible bankruptcy,” said Donna Kaye, tutor. “He keeps his Christmas spirit, perseveres and everything turns around for him.” ‘It’s A Wonderful Life’ has also been referenced in several other movies as a true holiday classic for anyone to watch over the holidays with the family. It also covers the joy of celebrating Christmas with one’s family. There are also movies that do not focus on Christmas but on other holidays as well, such as Kwanza, Hanukkah and Diwali. For Lynn alum Victor Laznik, he prefers the untraditional comedy movies rather than the traditional movies. “These [new movies] are usually one-offs, but [I like] ‘Eight Crazy Nights.’” ‘Eight Crazy Nights’ follows the adventures of a 30-something-year-old party animal, that ends up with community service at a youth basketball camp (after wrecking a restaurant and a Santa sign). Unlike other holiday movies that focus on Christmas, ‘Eight Crazy Nights’ is an animated cartoon meant for adults, and there is a huge focus on Jewish holiday customs instead of religious Christian and Catholic customs. Other movies such as “How the Grinch Saves Christmas” and “Elf,” also focus on the non-religious side of the holidays, focusing rather on the comedic side of the holiday season. “‘[National Lampoon’s] Christmas Vacation,’” is hilarious,” said Matthew Colwill, sophomore. All in all, the holidays are a great time for watching movies that can either be classical or modern, depending on what is available. This holiday season, it appears students around campus prefer the funny movies to the classical ones.

How do you judge an argument without knowing all the facts? Try applying logic. (Chapter 14 of Thank You for Arguing can help you.) Take this argument: Bill Nye the Science guy recently debated creationist Ken Ham. BuzzFeed asked some of the attending creationists to write notes to the other side. I'll deal with the logic one at a time, keeping the original spelling intact for the sake of verisimilitude. Are you scared of a divine creator? Ad hominem, an attack on the opponent's character. Being scared of a divine creator is practically recommended in the Bible. Besides, many believers in a divine creator study actual science. Is it completely illogical that the earth was created mature? i.e. trees created with rings...Adam created as an adult? Trees created with rings? Um, sure. That's not illogical per se. But the argument is a Straw Man, which sets up a weak version of an opposing point in order to shoot it down. You could also call this fallacy a Red Herring, which distracts the audience to make it forget what the main issue is about. The debate isn't over the logic of creationism; it's over the science. Does not the Second Law of Thermodynamics disprove evolution? Fallacy of definition, also known as a misapplied axiom. Newton's Second Law says that entropy won't decrease in an isolated system. Since the Earth isn't an isolated system, the definition doesn't apply. You could also call false analogy on this argument, since evolution and entropy in physics are related only in a metaphorical sense. How do you explain a sunset if there is no God? False choice! This woman is assuming that evolutionists must not believe in a god; or, rather, in her capital-G God. If the Big Bang Theory is true and taught as science along with evolution, why do the laws of thermodynamics debunk such theories? Red herring again. Weren't we talking about evolution vs. creationism? And, if you got past the ninth grade, presumably you heard of quantum physics, which don't "debunk" Newton but, you know, layer a different set of physical laws that apply to that non-isolated system we call the universe. Here we have a fallacy called many questions, a shotgun marriage of assumptions. What about noetics? What about them? Are you talking about neoplatonism, which in extreme versions argues that everything (or nothing) is in our heads? This goes beyond the red herring to what I call "Squirrel!" (See the movie "Up".) Where do you derive objective meaning in life? You could call "objective meaning" an oxymoron or a paradox since most definitions of meaning are subjective. But you could also call this fallacy wishful thinking or the necessity fallacy. We need meaning, and creationism provides that better than evolution. Therefore, creationism must be true. Many top physicists commit this fallacy, so don't feel bad. If God did not create everything, how did the single-celled organism originate? By chance? Rhetorical question, though not a bad one. Scientists believe that the first single-celled organism was created from carbon-based soup and some, um, energy. (Hey, I'm a rhetorician, not a biologist.) The fact that it happened at a particular time could be chance, could be God, take your pick. In any case we have another red herring. God's creation of the first single-celled organism would not disprove evolution. And, hey, creationists: please stop assuming scientists are godless. Some are, some aren't. I believe in the Big Bang Theory...God said BANG! and it happened! Not sure which translation of the Jewish Scripture has God saying "Bang," but I'd like a copy. Many questions again. The debate is over evolution, people! Though I'm sensing that the disbelief here is over science in general. Is God also preventing climate change and vaccinations? Why do evolutionists/secularists/huminists/non-God-believing people reject the idea of their being a creator God but embrace the idea of intelligent design from aliens or other extra-terrestrial sources? Many, many questions. The fallacy of association is certainly going on here, lumping together groups of people who may not share the same beliefs. And, dude, your science teacher with the deely-boppers coming out of her head? That was just Halloween, man! There is no inbetween...the only one found has been Lucy and there are only a few pieces of the hundreds necessary for "official proof." Here we have an interesting syntactical fallacy, lack of antecedent. The "only one" implies that only one pre-human has been found, but the pronoun allows us to make all kinds of wild assumptions. Actually, numerous pre-humans have been found. As for "official proof," that's a false definition. There are no "officials," only scientists. And a single bone can point to a new species. Happens all the time. I do like "There is no inbetween." Nice song lyric. Does metamorphosis help support evolution? Here we have the fallacy of...I have no idea what you're talking about. Rocks? Kafka? If evolution is a theory (like creationism) or the Bible why then is Evolution taught as fact. Definition fallacy again. Was science even taught in your school? A scientific theory is not the same as a Sherlock theory or a Moses and the Burning Bush Theory. (Wait. That's not a theory at all. Nor is the Bible a "theory." The Bible is a sacred text or a work of literature, depending on your point of view.) A scientific theory is an explanation of a set of repeatedly confirmed facts. It is not a guess, or a whodunit or a wish or a prayer. It's an explanation of facts based on observation or repeatable experimental data. Look it up. Please, please look up "scientific theory." Because science by definition is a "theory"--not testable, observable, nor repeatable, why do you object to creationism or intelligent design being taught in school? Ah, the version of the definition fallacy that's closely related to the missing antecedent. "By definition"? Whose definition? Your definition is the exact opposite of science. Oh, please, woman holding the note, please tell me that you don't have offspring or that they'll run for Congress someday. What mechanism has science discovered that evidences an increase of genetic information seen in any genetic mutation or evolutionary process? Red herring. Evolutionary theory does not depend on "increasing information." On the other hand, if you count every new species or mutation as a recombination of data--and you should--then genetic information increases all the time. And the mechanism is evolution. There's an interesting rhetorical tactic in this question, by the way: skotison, which is Greek for "darken it." Fancy language and syntax makes the writer sound intelligent while obscuring her point. What purpose do you think we are here for if you do not believe in Salvation? Red Herring. Squirrels all over the place. Also a weird kind of tribal thinking. If you believe in evolution, you're not one of us. If you're not one of us, then you must not believe in salvation. If you don't believe in salvation, you should be burned at the...I mean, your life has no purpose. Why have we found only one "Lucy," when we have found more than 1 of everything else? Hey, how about buying an updated textbook and reading about all the discoveries made since 1974? In any case, this argument constitutes the ignorance as proof fallacy. The lack of evidence is proof it doesn't exist. Can you believe in the "Big Bang" without faith? Rhetorical question. Yes. I would guess that most atheists believe in the Big Bang. Does that answer your rhetorical question? (I'm asking that rhetorically.) How can you look at the world and not believe someone Created/Thought of it? It's Amazing! Yes, it is! But awesomeness is proof only of your emotion. This is called the pathetic fallacy, from the Greek pathos, meaning "emotion." Nonetheless, many evolutionary scientists have that same feeling of awesomeness, and it makes many of them believe in a god. Evolution is amazing, too! Relating to the Big Bang Theory...Where did that exploding star come from? Current Big Bang theory doesn't posit an exploding star but rather a tiny bit of matter tunneling through...again, I'm not a scientist. But there's a fallacy of definition here. Before you challenge a theory, make sure you know what the theory is. And where does that bit o' matter come from? Read Jim Holt's great book, Why Does the World Exist? You won't get an answer, but he offers a great many very cool guesses. If we come from monkeys then why are there still monkeys? Many questions again. We didn't come from monkeys. And if we did come from monkeys, that wouldn't preclude the continuing existence of monkeys. A mama monkey could just possibly produce monkey descendants and freakish, naked, giant ape descendants who believe in creationism. Makes me shudder to think about it.

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Editor’s Note: The Bluffton Sun was first published in January 1998. As we celebrate our 20th anniversary in 2018, we want to look at the past 20 years of history and changes around town. This is the fourth in a series of articles about the changes we’ve all seen. Join us as we revisit the past 20 years. In 1998, when the Bluffton Sun newspaper was founded, congregations of local organized religions were beginning to swell in numbers, much like the community’s population itself. Consider that Bluffton annexed the 20,662-acre Palmetto Bluff 20 years ago, and the town’s population in 2000 was 1,275. Now, the Town of Bluffton encompasses 54 square miles from its original 1 square-mile Old Town, and today’s population is 21,085. The roots for a few local churches trace back to the mid-1800s. Some have changed names and denominations and relocated from their original sites. Churches formed in the 20th century matured in size, services and outreach programs. For historical perspective, the Greek revival-style Bluffton Methodist Episcopal Church on Boundary Street was built in 1853 and is Old Town’s oldest church building. The Methodist congregation sold the building in 1874 to the newly formed African Methodist Episcopal Church overseen by former slaves. It is now known as Campbell Chapel African Methodist Episcopal (AME). Building on the Church of the Cross at the south end of Calhoun Street, alongside the May River, began in 1854 to seat 600 parishioners. Services on “The Bluff” of the May River were first held in the 1830s. Both the historic edifices survived intact when the Union army assaulted Bluffton during the Civil War in 1863. These days some churches, like the Live Oak Christian Church, don’t have a permanent facility or chapel but hold regular worship services at the Bluffton School of Dance. It appears nearly every church has its own web page and-or social media presence, and many offer their weekend services and sermons online for viewing. Two things have remained historically untouched: The steadfast commitment to the original church missions and beliefs, and common fellowship among parishioners. In Bluffton, there are 33 Christian and non-denominational churches, according to churchangel.com, and no synagogues, although the Temple Oseh Shalom holds its services at the Lowcountry Presbyterian Church on Simmonsville Road. There is one Jehovah’s Witness temple, on Bluffton Road. Locally, 39.1 percent of residents are affiliated with a religion, according to Sperling’s Best Places. Catholicism reports 10.5 percent of that total, and Baptists 8.1 percent. The others are “other Christians” 6.6 percent, Presbyterians 3.4 percent, Methodists 3.3 percent, Episcopalians 3.3 percent, Pentecostals 1.4 percent, Lutheran 1.1 percent, LDS 0.9 percent and Jewish 0.4 percent. Eastern and Islam religions are unreported. Peeking into the time capsule from events in the 1990s: - The Church of the Cross on Calhoun Street opened its Buckwalter campus in 1998 and added a faith-based school, welcoming seven first graders that first year. Four-hundred students in preschool through eighth grade now attend. This Anglican church has grown from a mission to a parish, and the number of its parishioners has grown 20-fold in the past two decades. - Lowcountry Presbyterian Church, which held its first service in 1993 in a rented room, now has 450 members. Since 2000, they have been gathering at their sanctuary on 9 acres on Simmonsville Road. - Lowcountry Community Church, which began as a 41-member bible study group in 1994 on Hilton Head, broke ground for its current facility in 2002 on Buckwalter Parkway. Three years earlier, new (and current) pastor Jeff Cranston began reaching out to the Bluffton community for fellowship. Today, there are more than 2,000 nondenominational church members. The church recently dedicated its 750-seat state-of-the-art worship center. - St. Andrew Catholic Church purchased a 63-acre site on U.S. 278 from Union Camp Corp. in 1995 to build a new parish campus. Bishop David Thompson of Charleston decreed that the parish would receive a new name – St. Gregory the Great Catholic Church – when the new church was constructed and blessed two years later. The parish has grown its membership by more than 7,000 people. - The Campbell Chapel American Methodist Episcopal Church, which outgrew the original building built in 1853, built a new church next door in 2004. It’s seeking to have the original building ordained on the National Registry of Historic Places. - The property on the corner of Allen and Boundary streets in Old Town, where the parsonage of the former Bluffton Methodist Episcopal Church was located, was deeded to the Bluffton United Methodist Church. It underwent a major building expansion in 2015 that doubled the sanctuary seating capacity. Also built was a music suite for all of the church’s choirs. - The historic chapel on Pritchard Street for the St. John Baptist Church hopes to erect a historical marker at the site of the extant sanctuary, citing its strong relationship in Gullah culture. - The Bluffton campus of St. Andrew-By-The-Sea renovated space in a building on Persimmon Street in 2016 and plans to move to a permanent facility on Buckwalter Parkway, where it owns 10 acres. Lowcountry resident Dean Rowland is a veteran senior editor and freelance writer.

Noting a story about counterfeit Modigliani paintings in the news today, I recalled a bit of research I had done on the film F for Fake, which deals with forgery of Modigliani paintings as a superficial subject. It is time to blog it. In my ‘expert’ opinion, this film is a clever piece of Cold War-era, Russian-inspired, anti-fascist propaganda. Ultimately the film serves as a vehicle to launch ‘legal’ (and carefully worded) smears at the characters of Howard Hughes and the ‘art expert’ community at large. Perhaps I feel guilty to say it is a fantastic and entertaining art film. (See the below if you only watch a moment of it.) Hoax-master Orson Welles’ 1973 ‘reality’ documentary is a film about hoaxes, and is itself a hoax. In the introduction, Welles tells us this is a film “about trickery, fraud, about lies”. It opens with Welles performing a magic trick in a train station, and describing himself as a “charlatan” who “used to be a magician”; he asks the young lad for whom he performs the trick: “have you ever heard of Robert Houdin?” (Houdin is considered the inspiration for one of Welles’ childhood mentors, Harry Houdini – and is also considered the father of the modern art of conjuring.) The film is therefore set in a context of conjuring (conspiracy). The film runs approximately 1.5 hours and Welles notifies us in the early scenes that for one hour of this film, he is telling us a true story based on ‘available facts’. In this sense, the rapid-fire exposition of likely-false conspiracy theories and rumors which surrounded Howard Hughes (such that he walked down Las Vegas Boulevard with Kleenex boxes for shoes, and never came out of his hotel ‘compound’) occur in the supposedly true part of the film. They can be considered ‘true’ as Welles laughs them off as false. This is accomplished in a rather condescending tone and in the framework of very specific, lawyer approved language which flashes across the screen. The dismissal of conspiracy theory in this sense as jokes seems to in fact reinforce the knowledge of them in the viewer of the film. The film has several intertwining storylines around the themes of fraud and hoaxes which focus on the characters of Clifford Irving, and Elmyr de Hory who both lived on the small Mediterranean isle of Ibiza. The movie reveals both are at civil and/or criminal risk for their activities. Clifford Irving wrote a hoax biography of Howard Hughes, and Elmyr de Hory was a famous art forger. The film reveals that Irving and de Hory collaborated to present de Hory’s forged paintings as legitimate masterpieces to museums and art dealers, with a narrative that seeks to undermine the ‘expertise’ of the art community. It also suggests that the expert forger de Hory may have had a role in fabricating materials which lent the fake Hughes biography credibility as well. In what must algebraically be the wholly ‘fake’ 30 minutes of the movie, a new story arc is introduced regarding the starring actress, Oja Kodar, as the subject of a fictional art hoax involving her grandfather (a supposed art forger) and Pablo Picasso. This arc would seem to reinforce the story line of wide adoption of counterfeit paintings by the art community. Throughout, the film frequently argues that if these fakes are considered real by others – or in this sense that because Picasso has claimed these sublime fakes as his own – they indeed become real for all intents and purposes. This may be a commentary on the role of hoaxes and conspiracies themselves becoming ‘real’ in the context of the film itself, despite this portion of the film being technically a complete fabrication. In the case of Elmyr de Hory, we see a potential parallel in deception in the film An Honest Liar (inspired by F for Fake), as James Randi’s husband is a similar (con) artist who has an ‘unknown identity’. (See the ‘Carlos hoax’.) When watching F for Fake, it is important to keep in mind that there was perhaps a great deal of male competition between Howard Hughes and Orson Welles. For one thing, the one-time playboy Hughes had supposedly impregnated Welles’ wife Rita Hayworth shortly after they had separated or divorced. But beyond this, it is perhaps more important to consider the diametrically opposed political philosophies of Hughes and Welles, and how this intersected professionally in the era of the movie business and propaganda itself. Whereas Orson Welles had been an instrumental member of the Soviet-managed Anti-Nazi League successor group, the Hollywood Democratic Committee, Howard Hughes had at one point bought RKO pictures and been very harsh to Communist Party sympathizers within the ranks of Hollywood.Hughes had been instrumental in repositioning the American film industry from producing anti-Nazi fims to producing anti-communist ones in the early years of the Cold War. When Orson Welles worked with the Russian spy Michael Olian, it was around the same time Olian was seeking to free up RKO money which had been ‘frozen’ in the Hughes era of ownership. It is also undeniable that Hughes as a capitalist magnate and ‘propagandist’ (owning media which he used to sell a political message), had strong parallels to William Randolph Hearst. In this sense, this film-scale smear of Howard Hughes as a lunatic is almost a sequel of sorts to Citizen Kane – the film which got the FBI interested in Orson Welles as a potential communist sympathizer in the first place. F for Fake reveals that Citizen Kane was originally going to be based on Howard Hughes (this claim occurs in the supposedly truthful first hour of the film). Here it is more useful to consider F for Fake as anti-fascist than specifically anti-Nazi cinema since the Soviets sought to portray the US government as fascists as the USSR’s propaganda reciprocally re-positioned in the Cold War. Citizen Kane is also seen as anti-fascist. From a Soviet angle, Hughes had been instrumental in the Azorian mission contemporaneous to the production of F for Fake. Hughes had also potentially employed ex-CIA operatives who are alleged to have been involved in assassination attempts on Fidel Castro. However, in this sense, the rumors about Hughes also link him to claims about the CIA and the mafia as they relate to the John F. Kennedy assassination, and in this sense, they also smell of Russian disinformation. Considered in the context of pro-Russian, anti-fascist propaganda, the art hoax angle of F for Fake is encapsulated in the realization that the post-WW2 art community was involved in the sale of Holocaust victim property. The attack on ‘experts’ and the gleeful perpetration of hoaxes of all sorts in the film can be observed as a punishment for this perceived wrong. (Hughes is suggested to have harbored anti-Semitic beliefs by some biographers.) De Hory was himself of Jewish descent and likely spent time in a concentration camp, and Welles was adopted by an Eastern-European Jew (Maurice Bernstein )). This aspect of the film is sobering in consideration, and worth thinking about — although still, it is important to point out here that Welles’ mentor Louis Dolivet and one-time benefactor Michael Olian were both Soviet spies of Jewish descent. Ironically both were ostensible anti-fascists caught up in Nazi-war crime investigations and allegations of Soviet money operations and personal enrichment connected to the sale of Holocaust victim property. Interestingly, Pablo Picasso had been a strong critic of Francisco Franco in the Spanish Civil War which Welles also supported (alongside long-time friend Ernest Hemingway who is also remembered fondly in F for Fake). At age 62, Picasso became a communist. The French art community which Picasso participated may support an argument regarding prevalent anti-Semitism, contempt for experts, and post-war theft of property. Normally, I would never encourage readers of this blog to watch and enjoy Russian propaganda, with this exception for now. It is refreshing to experience ‘high brow’ propaganda once in a while – not the ad-nauseam social media meme-space for once. But most critically, this is not only entertainment, but a learning experience about potential injustice in the art community as well as a chance to perhaps set the record straight on Howard Hughes, for better or worse. Film noir concepts, an attack on anti-Semitism, and Russian propaganda come together in this movie. I think if you watch this film with the correct perspective (as above), then you will learn something, as well as be entertained. Here is the Criterion Collection edition of the film on YouTube (where it has been seemingly posted without a takedown for many years):

The Five Stages That Take You From The First Date To Engagement How do I know if my new boyfriend/girlfriend is – Right for me? Serious enough? Meeting my needs? Ready for marriage? The answer to all of these questions is: Use Jewish wisdom to follow the five spiritual stepping stones that lead us towards deeper intimacy and partnership. Meet Your Host Some general wording that will appear on every product page

The Monuments Men During WWII, there was a concern amongst Allied Nations about the preservation of art and cultural treasures. Hitler and his forces were pillaging and plundering to both finance their efforts and create a grand “Furhermuseum” at the center of the Third Reich empire. American President Franklin D. Roosevelt created the “American Commission for the Protection and Salvage of Artistic and Historic Monuments in War Areas" on June 23, 1943. It was a group of about 350 people, including art historians and soldiers. They spent the remaining years of the war scouring the continent, looking for Hitler’s secret depositories of stolen work. After the war ended, the commission’s work did not stop. Art historians, historians, document experts, and governments worked together to identify everything that had been stolen. It was their job to determine where the pieces came from and how to return it to the original owner. Works that belonged to museums and religious buildings were easy to return. But, there were also tons of pieces that were stolen from prominent Jewish families. Records were harder to come by and descendants had to be tracked down. In the meantime, some art slipped through the cracks and was sold to collectors and museums. Today, the Monuments Men Foundation continues the great work of the original commission. They track down lost and stolen pieces in order to preserve the world’s cultural heritage and returning looted art to the heirs of the rightful owners. On our Instagram this week, we are going to cover pieces that were both lost and found. This blog post is going to explain how the Monuments Men operated and cover a few works they saved from falling into Nazi hands. There was no guidebook for saving art. The Monuments Men were thrown into the middle of active theaters and had to figure out what to do all on their own. They had to rely upon their individual knowledge of art history and museum practices to help save works. This group was part soldier, part spy and risked their own lives to protect cultural treasures. Whenever possible, the Monuments Men would procure aerial photographs of cities that were under siege. They would mark important monuments and buildings (such as museums and galleries) to advise pilots where not to drop their bomb loads. They would do their best, but there were some cases where this was simply not possible. When this was the case, the Monuments Men would assess the damage and fix what they could. Using intel gathered from various sources, the Monuments Men would try and find art caches hidden around Nazi territories. In Germany alone, they were able to find over 1,500 repositories. Five million pieces of art were carefully catalogued, researched, and restored. Whenever possible, the pieces were returned to their original museum or owner. The work is still ongoing and is continued by the Monuments Men foundation. Two works by Leonardo da Vinci are excellent examples of how the Monuments Men operated in the field, outside of looking for major caches. The first is the famous Mona Lisa. In 1939, it was clear that the Nazis were going to invade France. Directors and curators at the Louvre knew Hitler and his cronies' penchant for stealing art, so they knew it was up to them to protect the treasures held within the museum. Carefully and quickly, they packed up the masterpieces and loaded them into ambulances. At this point in the war, not even the Nazis would stop an emergency vehicle. The treasures were taken to various estates and houses in the French countryside, away from major cities that were targeted by the Nazis. Throughout the war, the Monuments Men assisted in keeping the Louvre works, such as the Mona Lisa, from falling into Nazi hands. It was moved at least six times, each one fraught with danger. If they were discovered, not only would the priceless works fall into enemy hands, but their lives would most likely be forfeit. Thankfully, that didn't happen and the Mona Lisa was saved. The second work is the Last Supper. This one represents how the Monuments Men had to fight against the war itself in order to save cultural icons. The Last Supper has always been a fragile painting. Da Vinci attempted to use a new fresco technique and it started to crumble away during his own life time. In 1943, the Allies were performing bombing raids on Italy. They wanted to retake the peninsula and were willing to do just about anything to turn the tide. Milan was one of the target cities and Santa Maria delle Grazie (the church were the fresco was painted) was within the bombs' range. The Monuments Men had to act fast. Because this work was a fresco, moving it to another location wasn't possible. So, they got creative. Steel scaffolding was erected and used as a brace to support the wall. Then, sandbags were placed to help support and absorb the impact. The Monuments Men had only a few types of supplies to work with, but they made the best of it. Their efforts saved The Last Supper. Allied bombs rained down on Milan and hit Santa Marie delle Grazie. The only wall of the refractory that remained standing was the one that The Last Supper was painted upon. Thanks to the efforts of the Monuments Men, the world has been able to keep their cultural treasures. Hitler and his forces were responsible for the deaths of over 60 million people and tried to erase our shared heritage. But, the brave 350 men and woman of the Monuments Men group helped to save the priceless works and keep the past alive.

Commentary on Psalm 29 Psalm 29 thunders forth a bold proclamation: God’s power reaches into the world and the whole world takes notice. This psalm has a long history, perhaps one that goes back to a pre-Yahwistic liturgy of the Canaanite god Baal or a similar ancient Near Eastern “storm deity.” In Ugaritic literature, which predates the Hebrew Bible by several centuries, the god Baal rises to prominence within the pantheon through his victory over the chaotic sea. Baal is known by the epithet “the cloud rider,” since he manifests his presence through thunder, lighting, and rain. As a storm god, Baal plays a pivotal role in the cyclical patterns of the fertility of the land. But of course, Baal is not the subject of Psalm 29. Instead, Yahweh has the central role as divine king. Whatever the prehistory of this text, the similarities between Yahweh and Baal help us understand the structure of exaltation that appears within Psalm 29. The structure of Psalm 29 The psalm begins with a call to a community, the bene elohim, which the NRSV translates “heavenly beings.” These are literally the “sons of god” or “sons of gods” (v. 1) who comprise the heavenly council and attend to the high god, Yahweh. The Old Testament has a number of references to this sort of community that supports and participates in Yahweh’s activity (e.g., Genesis 1:26). In the context of Psalm 29, the bene elohim are summoned to give glory to Yahweh (v. 1) and Yahweh’s name (v. 2). Indeed, three times at the outset, the psalm summons the voices of these heavenly beings, compelling them to affirm Yahweh’s power. In the next section of the psalm (vv. 3-9), the focus shifts from the voices of the sons of god(s) to the voice of Yahweh, the most powerful sound in the whole world. The phrase “voice of Yahweh” appears over the course of the psalm seven times. With seven functioning as a number of perfection in much of the Bible, the voice of God can be understood as both powerful and perfect. This voice (qol, literally “sound”) is the most immediate and compelling manifestation of the divine presence. In the context of the psalm, thunder represents Yahweh’s voice (v. 3). It was, for the ancients, the loudest sound anyone could experience. You can feel thunder, not just hear it. It shakes your bones. It comes from the sky. It can terrify. It can be a harbinger of destruction and fire (v. 7). And it is also a signal that rain is on the way, refreshing the land and bringing life to the soil. Thus for the psalmist, thunder is the perfect way to describe the complex range of Yahweh’s activity in the world. Yahweh’s tremendous heavenly power can bring forth both salvation and destruction. The association of thunder and “the waters” in v. 3 also testifies to God’s power. Like the ancient Near Eastern storm gods Baal and Marduk, Yahweh was understood to be the conqueror of the chaotic sea. Yahweh’s power over that primeval force was demonstrated at creation, when Yahweh subdued the sea, bringing order into the midst of chaos. Verse 10 gives yet another picture of God’s triumph over the waters of chaos; Yahweh sits enthroned over the flood. Though the sea roils and threatens to overwhelm the land, the sea witnesses Yahweh’s power and kingship by the very fact that it stays within its borders. These waters also respond to Yahweh in the theophanic storm, becoming agitated and excited when Yahweh’s voice thunders. “The voice” and all other voices Yahweh’s voice has an effect on everything, not just the waters. It also booms throughout the countryside (vv. 6-7). It shakes even the biggest living things, the colossal cedars of Lebanon (cf. v. 9). No place is beyond the reach of Yahweh’s voice. Even the wilderness, which like the sea was thought to be a place of chaos and disorder. The thunder of Yahweh echoes through the all wild places, a constant reminder that God is indeed in control. Verse 9a has posed famously difficulty problems for translators. It might refer to Yahweh’s power over the cycles of fertility in the animal world: “the voice of the Lord causes the deer to calve” (see the footnote in NRSV and the New Jewish Publication Society translation). Or it may continue the idea introduced in v. 5 that even the mightiest trees cannot withstand the storm when Yahweh utters his voice. In either case, the essential point remains the same. The natural world must respond to Yahweh’s power. The faithful respond too. After the seven-fold description of Yahweh’s voice, the psalm presents the voice of those worshipping Yahweh in the temple. They sound a unison, “Glory!” God’s voice is so overwhelming that it elicits a single human affirmation. The human community in the temple thus mirrors the divine community, the bene elohim (vv. 1-2). All voices glorify Yahweh, whose voice resounds throughout heaven and earth. The psalm ends with a plea. Verses 1-10 have described the powerful voice of Yahweh, how Yahweh reaches into the world and rules it with unquestioned supremacy. Verse 11 presents the human community making a petition for divine empowerment. Such a plea recognizes that the people exist in great need of God’s power. On their own, they are not powerful. They are not a peace. The community needs the blessing of a powerful God to survive and thrive in this world. Psalm 29 and the Baptism of the Lord Psalm 29 relates most obviously to the gospel reading through shared motifs of “water” and “the voice of God.” In Luke 3, the voice of God comes from heaven after Jesus’s baptism, confirming Jesus’ unique revelation of God: “You are my son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased” (v. 22). The psalm is helpful for interpreting the gospel because it reveals the depth and complexity of these motifs. Steeped in the language and imagery of the Old Testament, the reader of Luke’s gospel hears the echoes of God’s thundering voice, the voice that resounds over the waters of chaos, bringing order out of disorder. Indeed, the majestic voice of the Lord reaches throughout the whole world, even the wild, untamed places. And we pray that this powerful voice can even now bring blessing and peace.

Sunday, December 25, 2016 A Christmas message 2016 How many observe Christ's birthday! How few, his precepts! O! 'tis easier to keep Holidays than commandments. - Attributed to Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn't before! What if Christmas, he thought, doesn't come from a store. What if Christmas ... perhaps ... means a little bit more! - Dr. Seuss How the Grinch Stole Christmas! Today is Christmas Day. More than ever, humanity needs a heavy dose of the Christmas spirit. As we approach 2017, the world needs strong leadership to get us through these challenging times. The rise of far-right politicians and ultra-conservative political parties is frightening. These politicians and political parties are fanning the flames of racism, anti-immigrant sentiment, Islamophobia, anti-Semitism and misogyny. Sometimes it feels as if we are reliving the 1930s, but there is not a Churchill or a Franklin Roosevelt on the horizon. That is why those of us who oppose these reactionary forces must speak out strongly in support of social justice and a more equatable society. We must make our voices heard amid those who spew the vile rhetoric of the far-right. Those of us who believe that acting against climate change is a moral issue must continue to work towards protecting the Earth's environment. The climate change deniers must be challenged. The hate mongers and white supremacists must be challenged. A 70-year-old German woman, Imela Schramm, uses nail-polish remover, a scraper and spray as her weapons against hate crime. She carries them in a canvas bag with the message "Against Nazis." Day after day, she paints hearts over neo-Nazi and racist graffiti in Berlin. She told The New York Times that "When I see someone's dignity hurt, I feel it myself." It began decades ago when Schramm noticed a flyer supporting Nazi war criminal Rudolf Hess at a bus stop. Since then, she estimates that she has removed or painted over more than 130,000 signs in Germany and six other countries. Law enforcement officers usually giver her a gentle warning, but she was threatened with a sizeable fine in October. Strangers have hugged her and she's been assaulted three or four times. She told CNN, "People tell me I am intolerant, that I don't respect the far-right's freedom of speech. But I say: Freedom of speech has limits. It ends where hatred and contempt for humanity begins." I'm not suggesting that everyone should go out and imitate Imela Schramm, but the world could use more of her determination, her lively spirit and her spunk. This year, the Jewish feast of Hanukkah (Chanukah) falls at the same time as Christmas. Hanukkah begins on Saturday, December 24 (Christmas Eve) and ends on Sunday, January 1 (New Year's Day). It lasts for eight days. Both of these great festivals are festivals of light. When you light up your Christmas candle, your Christmas tree or your Menorah, you are displaying the symbols of a great triumph. Although the rituals may differ, the message remains the same. Christmas and Hanukkah represent hope in the midst of darkness and despair. The two great faiths of Judaism and Christianity share much in common. Both Christmas and Hannukkah send out a message of victory and joy. That message needs to shouted to the rooftops. It needs to be heard. The media may be full of bad news, but we have been given the Good News. It is guaranteed and it is eternal. MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM NUMBER 16. HAPPY HANUKKAH TO THOSE OF THE JEWISH FAITH. PEACE TO THOSE OF OTHER FAITHS AND TO THOSE OF NO FAITH.

Return to home page. Navigate: Click each title to display the article. Click again to collapse the article. If you are having difficulty viewing these articles, e-mail Louis. This book is by a man who wouldn't let experts discourage him from long-distance running, in spite of his injuries and his physical build. Caught at the crossroads of medical warnings and anecdotal evidence of aborted running careers, on one side, and the growing awareness that most mammals and some people manage to run most of their lives without significant injury, Christopher McDougall embarks on a journey to learn to run without injury. His book Born to Run has a dual focus, the smaller emphasis being on his personal journey, the majority of the book on explaining the relationship between the Tarahumara people of Mexico and the larger world of running, including its commercial and technological mis-steps. The writing style of this book, like my running style, suffers from excesses and omissions that frequently work against its intentions. As one might hope for a running style, the prose in the book improves with time, so that by the middle or so, the prose often reaches that remarkable standard described by George Orwell where it no longer draws attention to itself. So my caution to potential readers is not to be discouraged by the hyperbole, mixed metaphors, and apparently unnecessary delays during the first fourth of the book. Perhaps those pages suffer from some of the habits of "sports writing," when it engages in a flamboyant style comprised of unlikely comparisons and forced exclamations. There is nothing, however, necessary or universal about sports requiring those writing habits, as several later chapters in Born to Run illustrate. As McDougall sets out to discover the Tarahumara runners, he is leery of neighboring drug gangs, one of which made "five heads" roll "onto the dance floor of a crowded nightclub" (2). Five people dying and five heads rolling are not identical situations, the latter suffering from Hollywood imagery. Going to great lengths to describe the Tarahumara as a people who have deliberately avoided the crass commercialism of the West, the author uses the unfortunate comparison of a good looking Tarahumara being "Hollywood handsome." Again, in describing a Tarahumara, the language draws attention away from the man, Arnulfo, to a conglomerate of a cinematic pirate and a robocop: " . . . a thigh-length skirt and a fiery red tunic as billowing as a pirate's blouse. Every time he moved, the muscles in his legs shifted and reformed like molten steel" (27). In one final example, a young Tarahumara named Marcelino, " . . . looked like the Human Torch . . . he looked as if he'd burst straight out of the Steve Prefontaine poster on the bedroom wall of every high school track star in America" (41). This kind of prose is the heel striking sort, and if that sounds good, it isn't in light of the book's excellent, short history of the running shoe. In Chapter 25, it traces the history of the shoe over the last forty years, and how the shoe helped hijack the natural ability of humans to run long and to run for fun. Being from Los Alamos, I'm more tolerant of one more grand comparison that summarizes the effect of the shoe industry as McDougall assesses it: "Asics spent three million dollars and eight years--three more than it took the Manhattan Project to create the first atomic bomb--to invent the awe-inspiring Kinsei, a shoe that boasts, 'multi-angled forefoot gel pods,' a 'midfoot thrust enhancer,' and an 'infinitely adaptable heel component that isolates and absorbs impact to reduce pronation and aid in forward propulsion'" (170). The chapter traces the history of the running shoe in terms primarily of Nike, showing that well-intentioned technologies had serious negative consequences, and that various research continued to question these technologies. Not an expert except concerning my own experience, I was completely taken in by that chapter. Earlier on, the book achieves a similar cogency after narrating the forays of the Tarahumara into the challenges of the Leadville Trail 100 in Colorado. While the Leadville narrative is interesting, it is after that, in Chapter 15, that McDougall--at his best--questions the recent trends in running. Using Coach Vigil, noted running instructor from southern Colorado, as a touchstone for the vision of running as a form of love and joy, the discussion notes that in the 70s, runners such as Frank Shorter made great advances. Soon after, shoes became more developed and endorsements became more lucrative, while long distance running achievements in the western world lagged behind the achievements of their forbearers. While there is likely some counter-evidence that should be sifted through, the book offers a challenging thesis, that there's an inverse relationship between commercialization/civilization and successful long distance running. It is this realization that began to inform various training approaches, including Chi running and the POSE method, approaches that illustrate an almost spontaneous appearance of thoughtful antidotes to the excesses of heel-striking, jogging, and other inefficient movements (206). While this book could have become perhaps another method book--which might not be a bad thing, given that the expository chapters such as 15 and 25 are so good--it chose to remain a narrative. And it is the last quarter of the book that ties together so many loose ends, bringing a handful of ultramarathoners to Mexico to join the Tarahumara (also known as the Rarámuri) for a rigorous run through the Mexican canyons, competitive but not commercial, a run most likely forgotten except for the memorializing effort provided by this book. last updated: 2011/03/29 When I reviewed Christopher McDougall's Born to Run, I ignored two major characters in his book that have belatedly come into my field of vision. One is Caballo Blanco, also known as Micah True. He plays a large role in McDougall's book, and has now passed on to what might be hoped to be longer trails and wider canyons, having died this year. The other character is Scott Jurek, who is—as was Caballo Blanco—a resident of Boulder, Colorado. It was in Boulder that I heard Scott speak after a local fun run, and shortly after that I read his book, surprised that I had not taken more notice of him in McDougall's book. Eat & Run is a book I highly recommend to anyone who is interested in either long-distance running or stories of tough beginnings leading to real successes later in life. The book would also would be of interest to any vegan, particularly one who wanted a response for critics who think a balanced, high-protein, high-energy vegan diet is impractical. Scott has given the lie to such thinking, proving time after time that he is able to maintain his stamina and speed over long distances covering tortuous terrain. Skimming his "Ultramarathon Race History" at the end of the book, I see pages of runs that range between 50k and 160k, punctuated by the U.S. record for a 24-hour distance of 267k (165.7 miles) in 2010. The last feat, being a test of the mental capacity to resist boredom as well as the physical capacity to keep moving, might make one question the psychology of the runner, which is something Scott himself does in various ways through the book. Whatever the motivations for running are, it is toward the end of the book that he takes a journey through trails in the Grand Canyon to once again find the joy that gets lost along the professional way (a liability in any sport, probably). Outside of some necessary biographical chapters, each chapter follows a simple structure. It narrates an especially memorable or educational ultra marathon. The chapters usually conclude with a few paragraphs of carefully selected running tips, followed by one of his favorite vegan recipes. This structure makes the book eminently readable and, at the same time, helpful to the novice runner or vegan (or both). The books appears to maintain quite an honest account of Scott's career. The following examples assured me of this fidelity: his difficulties as the son of a harsh and stubborn father his friendship with Dusty, who may be at times faithful, inspiring, and also irritatingly crass accusations of Scott's failure to make wise decisions when he was pacing Brian Morrison in the 2006 Western States 100 the loss of his first wife who told him frankly that he wasn't funny and he wasn't interesting (193) the recognition of greater runners: "The greatest Spartathlon champion was—and probably always will be—home-grown. Twenty-six-year-old Yiannis Kouros . . ." whose award for the Spartathlon was withheld for several days because of suspicions he could have arrived with such an early finish only by cheating This book is inspirational, in that it shows that sometimes pain is something to be greeted and endured. It might not convert the reader to ultramarathons nor to veganism. It isn't attempting either. But it can help the amateur runner push a little harder on the next run or the pescatarian add a few more vegetables to the next meal. last updated: 2012/09/28 Among the reviews on this site, this one is least like a book review, and instead primarily provides a sample of quotations. The book promises to focus on the lives of the physicists whose work led to the field of nuclear physics, the starting point which is attributed to the "Miracle Year" of 1932. In that year the existence of the photon and neutron had been established, and these discoveries made the annual meeting of the Copenhagen circle even more momentous. Segrè nominates seven physicists as comprising the core that provided the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics. Four of the seven—Niels Bohr, Paul Dirac, Werner Heisenberg, and Wolfgang Pauli—would be placed in most physicists' selection of the century's top ten physicists. Lise Meitner, the only woman in the group, ranks high on anyone's list of the century's most important experimentalists. Another of the seven, Max Delbrück, changed fields soon after the meeting, though he never stopped defining himself as a physicist. He went on to become one of the founding fathers of modern molecular biology and ranks as one of that discipline's top ten. All of them taught and mentored a generation of future scientists. The last of the seven, Paul Ehrenfest, was perhaps the greatest teacher of them all. (1) It's Niels Bohr who carries the focus and celebratory spirit of the book, but it's Ehrenfest who perhaps explains best the title and subtitle of the book. It became a practice at these annual meetings for the younger physicists to put on a skit that poked fun at the older physicists. Accordingly, in 1932, the skit was a parody of Goethe's Faust. The unfortunate Ehrenfest was both cast as Dr. Faustus and, soon after the meeting in 1932, was subject to deep depression and committed suicide. Segrè writes, "In light of the suicide, it seems almost ghoulish to go back to the 1932 Faust parody and read into it further parallels flowing from the association of Doctor Faust with Ehrenfest" (252-53). Nevertheless, the author does hint at a few parallels. While the skit based on Faust seems more relevant to the book as a result of Ehrenfest's suicide, the references to the skit throughout the book often seemed to interrupt the less speculative, ultimately better material of the history. Using the skit provides an angle for Segrè that most likely differentiates his account from any other, but for me it was unnecessary. Perhaps a long footnote or an appendix would have done more for my appreciation of the skit's role. Of course, the book's title would have to change (perhaps to Physicists in Copenhagen). The subtitle, however, could remain, with a dual focus on the search for the soul of physics (is it a quantum or a classical soul?) and on the search by each person for his or her soul. It is Niels Bohr, the man with a heart for both science and the welfare of others, who brings the brightest moments to the book: Bohr also encouraged invitees to bring along particularly bright students. Ehrenfest took him up on the offer and arrived in Copenhagen with twenty-year-old Hendrik Casimir. . . . As their train approached Warnemünde, where they caught the old ferry across the Baltic to Denmark, Ehrenfest suddenly fell silent. Turning to Casimir, he said, "now you are going to know Niels Bohr and that is the most important thing to happen in the life of a young physicist. . . ." After arriving in Copenhagen, Casimir is allowed to extend his stay from a matter of days to two years. Casimir's parents worried about this unexpected separation from their son until they learned that they could send letters to him with speedy delivery, simply by addressing them, c/o Niels Bohr In a similar vein of generosity and appreciation of younger physicists, Bohr met George Gamow, on leave from the Soviet Union. Gamow's schedule allowed him only one day to visit Niels, but after spending a few hours together discussing alpha particle emission, Niels "said to him, 'My secretary tells me you have only enough money for one day. If I arrange for you a Carlsberg fellowship at the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences, would you stay here for one year?'" (187) Stories such as these provide sufficient background for the work Bohr performed helping Danish scientists escape to Sweden during the Nazi occupation. The scientific discussions do not require a knowledge of mathematics or physics, only an interest in the outlines of the theories developed in the 1920s-30s. Many pages involve Heisenberg, who, though much younger than Bohr, thought inventively like Bohr, and ultimately took some of the greatest risks to conceptualize the nature of atomic structure. Pauli formed a theoretical third with them, offering scathing critiques of everyone's work. Dirac did with pure mathematics what these three did with an amalgam of analysis, conjecture, and equations. Einstein, in America, and Schrödinger, in Switzerland, are paired off as two of the leading physicists who remained suspicious of the Copenhagen interpretation. Einstein in particular never subscribed to the loss of causality implied by the uncertainty principle, stating that if there were no causality, he'd rather be employed in a gaming house than a scientific institute. The book credits all the scientists with significant and often astonishing discoveries or explanations. Heisenberg's uncertainty principle and Bohr's principle of complementarity are presented as the culmination of the Copenhagen interpretation, also perhaps to be considered the soul of that kind of physics. The author, by the way, is a physicist and astronomer, who handles the scientific discussions with more authority and finesse than one would guess by reading these scant notes. last updated: 2012/07/21 This book portrays one man in North Carolina whose consciousness is split between enjoying nature through immersion and reforming society through example and precept. Reflecting on the man's family, including his unaccepting father, his supportive mother, and his disciplinarian grandfather, the author suggests how much easier it is for a man to leave civilization than to leave his family's influence. True to its title ("Last" and "American"), the book provides a historical dimension, fitting Eustace Conway into a lineage of true American men, including Daniel Boone, Kit Carson, Lewis, and Clark. The historical lines suggest that the traits that make for this American man are also traits that lead to frustration and alienation. Or is it the reverse?. As I read, I wished the narrator of The Last American Man could have remained distinct from the character she was describing. Increasingly, though, the two merge, making the narration colloquial and clichéd. Referring to Eustace's search for food while on a long hike, she concludes a paragraph with the statement that he was "starving to death." He certainly wasn't, although he might have felt that way. He might, elsewhere, have used words such as "bullshit" and "goddam," but there was nothing to indicate why the narrator relies on the same language, although she does. About half way through the book, I decided to declare a moratorium on referring to people "hanging around" or two people "sticking together." Perhaps I've been reading too many 19th century writings lately, but, for whatever reason, I expected a narration that drew less attention to itself and its own kinship to the culture being described. In spite of this objection, I recall some events are told quite well, including a series of failed relationships that Eustace had embarked upon, each obtaining about a paragraph to trace the rising and falling action (Valerie, Mandy, Marcia, Dale, Jenny, Amy, Tonya, and Carla) (140-143). Eustace's relationships with his two brothers and one sister are described memorably, showing that the siblings are both interested in and—at the same time—unable to be close to Eustace (236-239). Perhaps it is more than a coincidence that some of the best narration involves the relational side of Eustace's life, because that is the side where the narrator was forced to keep her distance from her subject, the side that Eustace had not mastered and for which Eustace could not begin to provide an adequate explanation. last updated: 2012/12/30 Like Naked (1997), Me Talk Pretty One Day is another collection of short stories from David Sedaris. For some reason, I enjoyed Me Talk more than the earlier collection. Perhaps one reason is because it contains several stories that I consider perfect. They are perfect in that I cannot think of anything that should be added, removed, or changed from them. The first example would be the first story, "Go Carolina," which describes the experience of being identified as a grade school student in need of speech therapy, and then receiving it. In the margins of the story lie dual recognitions: his teacher identifies him as being unable to pronounce his sibilants well; he, himself, identifies himself as a member of a minority of male students who are neither popular nor steadfastly heterosexual: I started keeping watch over the speech therapy door, taking note of who came and went. Had I seen one popular student leaving the office, I could have believed my mother and viewed my lisp as the sort of thing that might happen to anyone. Unfortunately, I saw no popular students. Chuck Coggins, Sam Shelton, Luis Delucca: obviously, there was some connection between a sibilate 's' and a complete lack of interest in the State versus Carolina issue. (9) Remove the stereotypical assumptions about the lisp from the story and it still stands as a remarkable record of how demoralizing and discouraging speech therapy can be for a grade-schooler. Everything is restricted to the point of view of the fifth grader, including the similarities between how detectives pursue and arrest suspects and how "Agent Sampson," the therapist, hones in on the speech problems, with the result that Sedaris learns to avoid using plurals altogether in order to avoid further scrutiny. Ironically, years later when he lives in France, he is perplexed by the gender of French nouns and learns that the only safe way to speak is to use the plural, which means the typical shopping trip results in two of everything, including things like blenders. Capturing and maintaining a specific point of view, allowing that point of view to provide the humor, is a major strength in Sedarus' writing. Later in the book, a story takes him to France where he enrolls in a French class. This single sentence proves the helplessness he feels as he struggles to stay above the water line, when the ruthless teacher attempts to weed out the incompetent students: "If you have not meimslsxp or lgpdmurct by this time, then you should not be in this room. Has everyone apzkiubjxow? Everyone? Good, we shall begin." (167) Another perfect story is "The Youth in Asia." While providing the history of pets in the Sedaris family, it sketches well the family itself. The story captures many of the moments of pet keeping, from the affection a first pet inspires to the insipidness of that pet's replacement, from the struggle to keep pets alive at all costs to the moment of surrender to the youth in Asia who says you must put your pet down, because, "'It is required.'" At first pets are brought in the home to entertain the children, but as the children grow up, pets are maintained to replace the children. Finally, "When my mother died and was cremated herself . . . my father and Melina [Great Dane] had each other all to themselves" (80-81). The stories often take the side of the person who doesn't fit into current trends or fashions. This part appeals to me because I share several of Sedaris' preferences. the American offering of only newly released movies in theaters—, and the habit of eating voraciously during the movie ("The City of the Dark Lights") restaurant dishes that contain unusual ingredients and are presented in a way that disguises the entrèe as a new type of architecture ("Today's Special") the lust for the newest technology with a consequent disdain for older technologies ("Nutcracker.com") Concerning this last item and in conclusion to this review, I will quote one episode in "Nutcracker.com": When forced to leave my house for an extended period of time, I take my typewriter with me, and together we endure the wretchedness of passing through the X-ray scanner. The laptops roll merrily down the belt, while I'm instructed to stand aside and open my bag. To me it seems like a normal enough thing to be carrying, but the typewriter's declining popularity arouses suspicion and I wind up eliciting the sort of reaction one might expect when traveling with a cannon. Another perfect story is "The Youth in Asia." While providing the history of pets in the Sedaris family, it sketches well the family itself. The story captures many of the moments of pet keeping, from the affection a first pet inspires to the insipidness of that pet's replacement, from the struggle to keep pets alive at all costs to the moment of surrender to the youth in Asia who says you must put your pet down, because, "'It is required.'" At first pets are brought in the home to entertain the children, but as the children grow up, pets are maintained to replace the children. Finally, "When my mother died and was cremated herself . . . my father and Melina [Great Dane] had each other all to themselves" (80-81). The stories often take the side of the person who doesn't fit into current trends or fashions. This part appeals to me because I share several of Sedaris' preferences. the American offering of only newly released movies in theaters—, and the habit of eating voraciously during the movie ("The City of the Dark Lights") restaurant dishes that contain unusual ingredients and are presented in a way that disguises the entrèe as a new type of architecture ("Today's Special") the lust for the newest technology with a consequent disdain for older technologies ("Nutcracker.com") Concerning this last item and in conclusion to this review, I will quote one episode in "Nutcracker.com": When forced to leave my house for an extended period of time, I take my typewriter with me, and together we endure the wretchedness of passing through the X-ray scanner. The laptops roll merrily down the belt, while I'm instructed to stand aside and open my bag. To me it seems like a normal enough thing to be carrying, but the typewriter's declining popularity arouses suspicion and I wind up eliciting the sort of reaction one might expect when traveling with a cannon. "It's a typewriter," I say. "You use it to write angry letters to airport authorities." The keys are then slapped and pounded, and I'm forced to explain that if you want the words to appear, you first have to plug it in and insert a sheet of paper. The goons shake their heads and tell me I really should be using a computer. That's their job, to stand around in an ill-fitting uniform and tell you how you should lead your life. . . ." (147) last updated: 2012/09/23 If you are considering becoming a public health worker, a doctor without borders, and/or someone who cares for the poor, read this book. It is going in the same direction and will be a good companion. The book narrates parts of the life, and the life's work, of Paul Farmer, MD, who grew up in the United States, sometimes on a used school bus and sometimes on a house boat. Unlike many who grow up under what may be considered impoverished conditions, Paul continues to embrace them in his adult life instead of taking refuge in cleaner, safer environments. Once he discovered the Central Plateau of Haiti, and began to establish a free clinic in Cange, he could never leave for long. He is a doctor who is refreshed and vitalized by his patients, and he is never at a loss for patients in the clinic, Zanmi Lasante (Creole for "Partners In Health." The scope of the book goes far beyond Haiti, and follows Paul to Peru and Siberia (among other places) in his crusade to treat the poor who have Tuberculosis (TB), a poor person's disease by and large. The strain of TB he sought to cure was multi-resistant (MDR). His goal is to provide treatment that reflects a preferential option for the poor, fully independent of economic, geographic, political, or social considerations. The author sums up the attitude that pervades Paul's efforts in the following sentence: He's still going to make these hikes, he'd insist, because if you say that seven hours is too long to walk for two families of patients, you're saying that their lives matter less than some others', and the idea that some lives matter less is the root of all that's wrong with the world. (294) The friend who recommended the book to me wrote, ". . . it is so amazing and important (and well-written) . . . ." The good writing arises not only from Tracey Kidder's prose, but from Paul's extemporaneous speech. When he is quoted, one often hears a good aphorism, with epigrammatic irony and often a bid for the underdog. Following is a (nearly) random sampling from Paul: I would read stuff from scholarly texts and know they were wrong. Living in Haiti, I realized that a minor error in one setting of power and privilege could have an enormous impact on the poor in another. (78) "Surely someone is witnessing this horror show? . . . I was taken with the idea that in an ostensibly godless world that worshiped money and power, or more seductively, a sense of personal efficacy and advancement, like at Duke and Harvard, there was still a place to look for God, and that was in the suffering of the poor. You want to talk crucifixion? I'll show you crucifixion, you bastards. (85) One thing that comes back to me, with all this cost-efficacy crap, if I saved one patient in my whole life, that wouldn't be too bad. What did you do with your life? I saved Michela, got a guy out of jail. . . . To have a chance to save a zillion of them, I dig that. (187) And there's the preemie who worried me because she's no bigger than a peanut. But she looked fine. . . . For a tadpole. (188) The book, published in 2003, ends on an optimistic trajectory. The Gates Foundation endows several organizations with money to fight MDR TB. Other donors help expand the work of Partners in Health in the Central Plateau. However, after the book's publication, President Jean-Bertrand Aristide (an acquaintance of Paul's) was ousted by a military coup, in 2004. It is always worth noting when a democratically elected leader who has found favor with a humanitarian such as Paul Farmer is removed from his country. The ousting of someone who understands the poor probably fits into Paul's concept of the uphill battle that he fights, "the long defeat" that he finds so worthwhile. last updated: 2009/02/21 Not having read him extensively, I've always thought Abraham Heschel (1907-1972) a writer who could be appreciated by followers of the Torah and of Jesus, alike. A Jewish philosopher, he wrote with great respect for the Torah and the rabbinical traditions. He also marched next to Martin Luther King, Jr. in one of the Selma civil rights marches (1965). And in this book, he echoes Jesus, writing, ". . . the Sabbath was a union that no one could disjoin. What God put together could not be set apart" (52). The central concept of the book is that the first six days of the week allow humans to build and achieve things in space, whereas the seventh day is set aside to allow humans to appreciate time. The difference between the two modes of being is great. Space, and all its belongings, are temporary—easy to engage in, being visible and tangible, and easier, therefore, to be misled by. Time, by contrast and by Heschel's definition, is eternal and is the palace where we meet God. It is also the palace where rest and celebration replace ambition and labor. Not the rituals, but the psychology and the spirituality of the Sabbath are the primary concerns of the book. I recommend the book for anyone who, independent of their attraction or rejection of ritual and tradition, seeks for a calmer, more meaningful life that is not governed by pace but by a balanced rhythm. It is fairly short, and even brief if one chooses to skip the middle chapters on the allegorical meaning of Rabbi Shimeon's life. This allegory is carefully explicated, but for those who do not savor that way of thinking, the conclusions in the final chapters are compelling apart from the allegory that leads up to them. Following are a few of Heschel's memorable aphorisms: Man is not a beast of burden, and the Sabbath is not for the purpose of enhancing the efficiency of his work. . . . The Sabbath is not for the sake of the weekdays; the weekdays are for the sake of the Sabbath. (14) The faith of the Jew is not a way out of this world, but a way of being within and above this world; not to reject but to surpass civilization. (27) If God is everywhere, He cannot be just somewhere. (81) One good hour may be worth a lifetime; an instant of returning o God may restore what has been lost in years of escaping from Him. (98) The book offers a bridge between the drive for occupying space and the necessity of allowing time to be an end in itself. When we control space we are bound to things, and time evaporates; when we submit ourselves to time, we are courted by eternity, and space becomes silent. "To men alone time is elusive; to men with God time is eternity in disguise" (101). The Sabbath, being defined as a day that is not only good but holy, provides a portal to eternity. Each individual occupies space exclusively, with the result the human relations are rivalrous, and our attention becomes frozen on what (and who) is—and is not—ours. In contrast, the entire race can share the same time, with the result that everyone can share will all their praise. While many of us are not committed to the Sabbath with either the rigor or the eagerness extolled by this book, we all find ourselves stalked by time. But it is not time that stalks us; it is the lack of time. Each effort to buy time, whether through another finished task or another, faster electronic communication—each effort uses up the time for which we increasingly thirst. The book invites us to let go of time, to stop seeking to control it, and thereby to finally appreciate it and the eternity that stands behind it. last updated: 2009/09/27 If you have read The Shack, the following quote may echo your reading experience: But the reader should be warned neither to expect a story nor to judge the book as such. Basically . . . the narrative outline advances the argument by providing the leads and transitional matter in the schematic conduct of the discourse. The voices in this enquiry are for the most part undifferentiated tonally, and bear labels chiefly in order to give a semblance of dramatic interchange to rational demonstration, and thus to lighten proofs. That description was written 49 years before The Shack was published, and is part of Bertand H. Bronson's introduction to Samuel Johnson's The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abissinia. The point is that The Shack shares something in common with other fictional works concerned more about certain ideas than about creating a fully nuanced world in which the actors might take control of the plot and lead it where they will. A kind of "dream vision," The Shack may disappoint any reader who is not in the mood for the priority of sentiment over ideas, as well as of ideas over character and phrasing. It does not have, alas, the quotability of Rasselas with its Johnsonian eloquence such as, "Marriage has many pains, but celibacy has no pleasures." What The Shack does offer is an imaginative detour from the rutted pathway of traditional Christian discourse to a fresher expression of (mostly) traditional discourse, landscaped with terminology that would not have been fashionable prior to the nineties. At times the words "relationship" and "relational" permeate the dialogue therapeutically. But that form of therapy became popular for a generation of westerners who were acutely aware of their inability to maintain relationships. And, similarly, The Shack addresses the root question of our inability to know our Creator, something that is seemingly either so basic as to not need instruction, or so far-fetched as to not merit discussion. And, yet, the need persists. Readers may find themselves disagreeing with the book's theology. In fact, it seems that many readers feel a need to state that they did not agree on all points (although who would think they had?). But few readers who finish the book--except by assignment--will disagree with the importance of the quest the book portrays. Why, otherwise, finish the book? The book offers a vision of a kinder, gentler God than the one often preached in many Catholic or Protestant circles, at least wherever the concept of the final judgment is conveyed. In a less elegant manner than CS Lewis' The Great Divorce, The Shack invites the reader to consider that the distance between humans and God is a specifically human orientation and that there is nothing in the divine promoting that distance. This concept of an unfathomable love is something worth exploring, whether one does it through The Shack or in his or her own imaginary journey. If it is a valid concept, it is an absolutely important one in the long run. At this point, my review ends, and what is left is a biographical note with its own imaginative turn. Prior to reading The Shack, I read an article that quoted various readers' reactions, among whom was a prominent Pastor of a prominent "church" that I had thought was an organization that would have welcomed a book like The Shack. Far from it, this Pastor denounced the book for being dangerous and something to be avoided. Of course denunciations like that get movies and books higher on the best-seller lists, which is probably not what this Pastor intended. At any rate, I mentioned to one of my friends that I was quite surprised this Pastor had denounced the book, and I was curious to read the book to find out what was so repugnant. At that point something like The Great Misunderstanding crept into our dialogue. Although my friend claims he did not say this (and I believe him, since he should know), what I heard was, "That's because the book puts that Pastor in hell." Accordingly, I bought the book and read it, wondering how this easy going God was going to put the Pastor in hell. Toward the end of the book, I realized my expectations were skewed. But on reflection, I think the book could have afforded such an ending. I think this because whether or not we believe that the concept of hell that Jesus described applies to this life only or also to the next, it is a concept tied closely into how much grace we offer others. In this ending--not that I'd want to wish this fate upon anyone--the main character would have returned from the shack and attended a popular fellowship, one where he could meet with the Elders and share his experience, somewhat as Paul did when he eventually met Peter and John. During this meeting, not the book, but the main character would suffer complete castigation and rejection from the Elders, finding himself fully invalidated by the Christian leaders, and in a position worse than his initial state. Not only had he disclosed the secret of his miserable state, the culmination of years of guilt and months of grief, but he was left now without the only hope he had ever encountered. And then the secret of heaven would be revealed, that heaven welcomes those who welcome others, excluding only the exclusive. The narrative would zoom out on this character, Mack, as he was being expelled by the Elders. The reader would see Mack, collapsing to the ground beneath the weight of his discouragement. Across an expanse, perhaps a large parking lot, inside a building, would be the Elders, conferring with each other, affirming their response to Mack. But the temperature in the building would rise, and rise. They would find themselves in an unbearable heat, and would finally realize that this was more than a heating and ventilation problem. This was their judgment day. They could open the door and ask Mack for a second chance, or they could not. The word "church" should be voluntarily banned in English since it has lost its ties to the original Greek word, "ekklesia." The Greek word refers to the "called out" ones who have left the institutional system of false authorities for the intangible leading of the spirit. The word "church" refers to the "called in" ones who are finding security within an institutional structure. last updated: 2009/04/05 Only a note on this book. By the author of Doctor on Everest (2000), this newer book extends Dr. Kamler's unique viewpoint as a medically trained, physically able adventurer to several other climates and terrains (including desert, jungle, and ocean). The technique of the book is to begin narrating a harrowing experience (sometimes the author's) and to analyze the factors of survival at work from a medical point of view. One can learn how the bends occur underwater, as well as how pulmonary edema occurs at high altitude (to name a few maladies). At times mental laziness caused me to breeze past the anatomical discussions, although they dip no further into technical details than a non-medical reader like myself could follow. My interest was more on the situations themselves—the things movies are made of. One element that grew tiresome to me, although it probably would be unnoticed by many readers, is the recurrent reliance on "natural selection." While I do not care to explicate the patterns—and feel no need to persuade others of these—it struck me that "natural selection" explained everything and was explained by everything. Particular mechanisms and physical attributes gave evidence to the role of natural selection, and the theory of natural selection explained why those mechanisms were either present or not present in a particular instance. My quarrel is not with the theory but with its exclusiveness. The book allots some room for mysticism (life-giving chants and inexplicable alternative medicines), but one imagines that if more were known, these, too, could be fitted into the naturalistic thesis. Perhaps this is all one should expect these days. But the recurrence seemed ultimately dogmatic and didn't allow for a universe with a creative intelligence guiding at least some of its development. last updated: 2009/01/17 (Frank Furedi, Routledge, 2004) This sociological study of the influence the practice and reliance on psychotherapy has had on Anglo-American culture stakes its subject matter on a data-rich field. Somewhere between the 1980s and the publication of the book, therapy has become institutionalized with our culture to the point where the therapists, their organizations, the popular media, and a large sector of the population recognizes therapy as the answer to nearly every unpleasant event, from birth to death. With the continuous (if unwilling) retreat of religious and moral "absolutes" in our society, therapy now fills the need for guidance and purpose. The peculiarity of therapy, in contrast to religious and moral codes, is that it is, on one hand, dependent upon an external authority (the therapist), and, on the other, free from external imperatives. The individual is the measure of all things, the goal of therapy being the harmonizing of emotions and thoughts so that the individual feels whole. When necessary, this process may require the cultivation of--or deliverance from--various emotions. At its best, the book focuses not on the efficacy of therapy, but of the efficacy of the cultural patterns that derive from therapy. When it treats therapy as a metaphor, the book is most persuasive. In that context, therapy is a placeholder for this culture's dual trajectory: it searches for meaning and at the same time avoids reliance on external systems of belief. Therapy understood as a metaphor is appropriated by politics and commerce to lead the populace into easily manageable paths. The appropriation damages the reputation of counseling and has the capacity to turn entire nations into citizens who, in their search for self-esteem, learn that they really do not have that much within them worth esteeming. Furedi is quick to point out various paradoxes, the most memorable being: While the inner life of the individual is the premium value to be protected and nourished through therapy, the process of therapy itself publicizes this life through a confessional mode that requires at least that the therapist become privy to the inner life, and at most that a group (or a nation, in the case of celebrities) becomes privy (My name is Everyman, and I am an addict of Everything). While the therapeutic agenda empowers the individual with a sense of significance, of being heard, it does so at the cost of endowing the individual with a sense of frailty. This point is best summarized by the final sentences of the book, "[Individuals] are far more likely to be instructed to acknowledge their problems than to transcend them. Therapy, like the wider culture of which it is a part, teaches people to know their place. In return it offers the dubious blessings of affirmation and recognition" (204). Developed to heal society, therapeutic claims show a steady course of creep and expansion. The claims extend the meaning of "trauma" from a life-threatening event to other less threatening events and finally to states of anxiety. Similarly, the identification of groups with some form of victimization extends from war syndromes that arise from highly violent circumstances, to other instances of victimization, whereby for significant segments of society, being able to claim that one is diseased is seen as an advantage, as a desirable status. Branches of the British and American government increasingly offer counseling as a remedy to losses that are not specifically psychic in nature, such as unemployment. This trend raises the question of whether more funding may be directed toward free counseling than toward job relocation during layoffs or toward the repair of housing following a natural catastrophe. Some criticisms that arose in the reading of the book: "The lady protests too much, methinks" (Hamlet, Act III) is hard to forget when Furedi consistently discounts and at times ridicules the need for some kind of therapy among certain individuals. One wonders if there is something the author does not want to expose in counseling, with the result that the critique of counseling remains one-sidedly negative. When I wasn't wondering whether or not some actual denial was behind the discourse, the book made me doubt that the author had ever known closely someone who had been truly traumatized, with the fragility and danger that such trauma entails. When the book abandons its focus on the metaphorical nature of therapy and gets inside the therapist's office, it is at its weakest. By criticizing in a broad and vague way the curative power of therapy, the book makes one wonder about the individuals whose lives may be saved through counseling, even if it is a small minority of the clientele. Finally, the book suffers frequently from being written within the jargon of sociology. If there were a corresponding term to "psycho-babble" I'd apply it to this book. How many sentences like these would a keen reader want to endure: "The process of medicalisation has been inseparable from that of professionalization" (100), or "The readiness with which the pathologisation of human behaviour is embraced indicates that the medicalisation of life has become an accomplished fact" (101)? This sociologisation of language has more than an aesthetic drawback. It deadens the discussion over the course of two-hundred pages. It invites the slightly suspicious reader to long for something concrete, for a description of modern life that is more nuanced, more lively, than the polarization of sociology and psychology. It may encourage the reader to put down the book and do something much more enjoyable. Having said that, I would still recommend the book, or parts of it, to anyone who hasn't taken full stock of the structuring role of the therapeutic metaphor in our daily lives. last updated: 2008/07/06 About the titles: as the "Author's Note" (ix-x) explains in greater detail, the initial title, Racing the Antelope, was changed because of not one, but two other books published at nearly the same time, each also bearing a form of "run" and "antelope" in the title. The likelihood of confusion was too great. About the author: Bernd Heinrich loves both animals and running, being qualified, by training and certification, to write about the two together. A few decisions as he reached adulthood hint at the kind of person he became (disciplined, courageous, and independent). He distinguished himself from his father (an entomologist) by choosing to be, instead, a zoologist who studies beetles (15). The fact that such a marginal difference is recalled by Bernd as a fairly radical step suggests how rigid his father's thinking was. His notable rebellion against his father occurred around that time when—against his father's advice—Bernd enlisted as a paratrooper for the Vietnam War (a fate he never experienced). Born in 1940, he earned his Ph.D. two years before the Olympic marathon was won by Frank Shorter (whom he references several times in the book), placing Bernd in that generation of long-distance American runners who celebrated long-distance running before the activity became more fashionable, as it is today. The only endorsement Bernd ever sought or received was from Ocean Spray, as a result of his reliance on cranberry juice during his 100 kilometer run. About the book: this book is written by a scientist for readers who care about nature, non-technical science, and running. Being a zoologist, the author has both an eye for nature and a technical vocabulary for describing it. His writing will most easily engage those who are already intimate with the world of insects, birds, and various mammals, as is illustrated by this passage, which culminates with a poetic jingle: "Tiger beetles stay in sunshine to maintain a high body temperature by basking, and if they are hot enough they may fly instead of run . . . . The wood pigeons coo, a jay screams raucously, a raven croaks. The chaffinches and the chiffchaffs sing" (32). His chapter "Ultramarathoners of the Sky," lucidly describes the flight patterns of birds who migrate annually from the Arctic nearly to Antarctica and back. Even readers with no interest in running could easily be absorbed by the astonishing feats and survival mechanisms this chapter reveals. So also is the case with his description of how camels manage to prolong their travel in the desert with minimal water in maximal heat. In "The Camel's Keys to Ultraendurance," we find one asset is their ability to urinate saltier fluid than can humans, thus not requiring as much water to eliminate toxic byproducts. Another aid for camels is their hump, which provides concentrated food (not water), and life-saving shade, much as the human head, with its hair, helps protect humans. Most chapters provide a mixture of a bit of Bernd's running biography combined with longer segments of natural description, inferences, and analogies. By the end of the book, every major element of running, including respiration, metabolism, fast and slow twitch muscles, stride, gait, temperature regulation, and motivation, is analyzed relative to the way other animals successfully manage one or more of these elements. Along the way, Bernd weaves some of these anatomical observations together into an evolutionary biological hypothesis of why humans are well suited for both short and long distance running. The short distances can of course be explained as a defense mechanism against predators. These distances require the fast twitch muscles powered anaerobically. The long distance running—given the running habits of other animals that might have been the motivation behind the run—is explained best as a predatory habit of humans, one that allows man to outlast faster animals with the result of ultimately killing and eating them. A long distance race is, to Bernd, a modern hunting expedition, the prey being the finish line, which grows more valuable the longer the race and/or the faster the pace, relative to the individual runner. The discussion of diet emphasizes, among other things, the merits of meat as a food for long distance running, one paragraph concluding, "And the more I ran, the more I craved greasy pork chops" (209). Meat is presented as both a source of calories and a source of many other nutrients, including fats, minerals, and vitamins. Bernd does admit, "This is not to say that we absolutely need meat. We can also get the same nutrients from vegetable sources or pills, but proper eating then takes much greater effort" (209). This effort has been realized and documented since the publication of Why We Run with Scott Jurek's Eat and Run. It may be with some relief that the scientist in Bernd forced the omnivore in Bernd to make this concession to vegetarianism. The book culminates with the 100 kilometer race in Chicago (1981), Bernd's antelope. That race is hinted at from the beginning of the book, when, during a 50 kilometer race, the author passes the "then-current U.S. National 100-kilometer record holder" (ix). Upon passing him, the author wondered "if, just possibly, I had the potential to race well at long distances." Not only does he run well at long distances, but he writes well about those runs. The final chapter, "The Race," is worth waiting for. It substantiates, at least in part, the meditations and musings about the animal kingdom that precede it. And it provides a few philosophical reflections. At one point in the run, Bernd writes, I'm still passing people on successive loops who are miles behind me in the race. Bystanders can't tell who is up front from who is way back in the pack. Just as in real life. (257) Finally, he is elated by one thing, an expectation that looks back to the recent death of his friend with cancer and ahead to this own inescapable mortality, "This will end soon" (258). Bernd Heinrich and Scott Jurek share on culinary experiment in common: they have both relied on olive oil as a primary food source during a long run (and they both have determined to never do that again). My copy of Why We Run was a gift from Dee, of Dee's Coffee Company, Puerto Vallarta. last updated: 2013/01/29 This book offers an antidote to all those who have been poisoned by a pessimistic view of God's interest in—and ability to redeem—every human being, no matter where or when that person lived. It puts the "good" back into the news about Jesus, who is represented as the clearest representation of the God who in all times and places beckons people to follow the light they have been given. "Sinners are not in the hands of an angry God" (177) the book concludes, after showing multiple ways to meet your Maker whether or not you have been exposed to an adequate portrayal of Christ. Where there is wrath, it is the anger of a loving Creator who sees his creation ignoring what is best for them and instead destroying each other. A person who seeks to do right and to honor God apart from the Christian tradition(s) is in a far better place than a person labeled as a Christian who eschews the opportunity to seek the Creator. In times past, it was perhaps not so troublesome to think narrowly about Christianity, in exclusion of the merits of other religions. But, as the world is shrinking as a result of global communication, it is absurd to ignore the claims and values of other religions. This book urges Christians to open up dialogues with members of other religions, to look for grace and truth wherever they occur, and to openly share what is so appealing about the life of Jesus. In this way, Christians may be delivered from bigotry and those in other religions may be exposed to something truly worthwhile in the gospels. Neither a universalist, nor a restrictivist, the author seeks to show that from the beginning God planned for the salvation of humankind. In executing this plan, God spoke to various people and nations in whatever way possible, and that these intentions were furthered, not countered, by the coming of Jesus into the world. When the purpose of God is understood in this way, then hell is logically understood as "not the prison from which people are longing to be freed, but [as] a sit-in where sinners have barricaded themselves in to keep God out" (180). In addition to undoing the damage of overly pessimistic, conservative evangelical thinking, the book also insists that religious pluralism ignores important differences between religions. Not all religions are equally true or noble. Even if God has spoken to various people in various cultures, it does not follow that the voice was as clear or as final as it was when it declared Jesus the "son in whom I am well pleased." Just as there is nothing arbitrarily exclusive about the salvation offered by Jesus, there is also nothing arbitrarily dispensable about his role in the human future. It is fashionable and politically correct to preach a loving God who cares infinitely about every human being, independent of that person's lifestyle or beliefs. This concept thrives on an ethical sensibility that is shared by many of us who have no patience for bigotry or pettiness projected on a divine plane. However, the book suggests (but doesn't develop) the assertion that this appealing portrayal of God arises from the Christian revelation: Ironically, the proposal of theological pluralism, which would undercut the normativeness of Jesus Christ, removes . . . at the same time the very basis for knowing God as personal and gracious, loving and forgiving. The paradox lies in the fact that the universality of God's love is known through the particular event of the Incarnation. One can only be sure there exists a gracious and loving God if it is the case that Jesus Christ is Lord (45). While I recognize that this assertion is not beyond dispute, it strikes me as a worthwhile inquiry. Before Jesus there was talk about a just and loving [if not personal] God, but the signal-to-noise ratio was usually pretty low. One does not always see the source of light itself but what the light illuminates. Similarly, our conception of a truly loving God (if there is a God at all), may be much more indebted to the words and actions attributed to Jesus in the gospels than to any other single source. Think about how God or the gods come off in ancient creation myths; in Greek and Roman myth, religion, and tragedy; or in the other ancient eastern and African faiths. Do not we gain something from the Sermon on the Mount, something that establishes a perfect Father who does not reciprocate evil for evil, who causes the sun to shine on the righteous and the unrighteous? I think we do. last updated: 2009/05/30 This is a story by a woman who was raised without a reliable father, who, at the age of twenty-two, lost her mother to cancer, who compensated for the lack of a father's love through promiscuity, who destroyed an outwardly good marriage through acts of adultery, who became involved in heroin use, who had an abortion without apparent grief, and who attempted to break away from these darker elements of life by hiking over eleven hundred miles. The miles lie along the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT). Both the life that the author had lived and the trail that she hiked were difficult. The interest in the book lies in the authenticity it achieves. The prose infrequently seems masterful, but it never sinks below being clear and serviceable. One of the finest statements of the book occurs toward the end, where Cheryl writes, "I had arrived. I'd done it. It seemed like such a small thing and such a tremendous thing at once . . . " (309). The antecedent for "it" is the completion of her long hike, but "it" could also apply to the writing of the book. Wild lacks the humor and elegance of Bill Bryson's 1998 A Walk in the Woods, about his adventure on the Appalachian Trail, but Wild also lacks the meanness of Bryson's book, which pokes fun at others about as frequently as he and his hiking partner decide to take a break from the trail. The tone of Wild is anything but judgemental, and this humility may endear readers to the book. While the book is a story about Cheryl's salvation, it rarely touches on anything transcendental. There are some prayers that could be as easily construed as curses, and there are a few encounters with new age mysticism that is neither affirmed nor discredited. But on the whole, the form of salvation offered depends on subjecting oneself to the right types of pain and enduring that pain until new pleasures arise. To those interested in the Pacific Crest Trail, quite a few anecdotes are offered. Certain parts of the trail, as well as some jeep roads leading one off the snowy parts of the trail, are described in detail. The year during which Cheryl hiked the trail, 1995, was a year during which accumulated snow shut down the High Sierras for all but the hardiest of hikers. Not only did she bypass the most snowy parts, but she had always planned to start the trail north of the Mexican border and to end it at the Washington border. There is no pretense, ever, about hiking the entire trail, "A world that measured two feet wide and 2,663 miles long" (4). The author echoes many other through hikers of America's long trails in noting that natural beauty along with any philosophical reflection frequently fades next to thoughts about either the next grocery store miles up the trail or the immediate pain of taking the next step. For Cheryl, it was often the thought of the next bottle of Snapple that both distracted her from her environment and encouraged her to endure it. Apparently, she carried a backpack that was disproportionately heavy for her body, heavier than any other pack encountered on the trail, and ultimately addressed by her as "Monster." Her feet suffered unusual pain, perhaps a result of the weight she carried and the fit of her boots, which, incidentally, REI replaced in the middle of her journey (and in one size larger, at her request). A memorable piece of dialogue occurs when she is hitchhiking back toward the trail and is interviewed on the side of the highway by a journalist. He is interviewing hobos, he says, and insists on interviewing her although she insists more and more vehemently that she is not a hobo. At the end of the comical interview, he hands her a "Standard-issue hobo care package," (181) which contains a can of beer and some snacks. "'But I'm not a hobo,' I echoed for the last time, with less fervor than I had before, afraid he'd finally believe me and take the standard-issue hobo care package away." The ultimate pain behind Cheryl's drive to hike the Pacific Crest Trail was the death of her mother, at age forty-five. Toward the end of the hike, her mother's birth date arrives, and, along with it, an internal psychodrama, during which the daughter finally accuses the (highly devoted) mother of her failings. This passage is well written, convincing, and makes the end of the book more credible. While the end of the hike is perfectly credible (she sits down at an ice cream store in Cascade Locks, Oregon, and eats a chocolate-vanilla twist cone), the end of the book projects life changes that implicitly arose from the long hike, but which cannot be attributed to the narration of the hike itself. These auspicious changes include a marriage and family that strongly contrast with Cheryl's previous life style. But they are credible, not only because she confronted her conflict and grief toward her mother, but also because over fifteen years transpired between the time she hiked the trail and published the story of the hike. This retrospectivity lends her the luxury of authority: she can tell us not what she hoped would unfold, but what unfolded in the years to follow. And there is no reason for the reader to doubt that she gives a reliable outline of the trajectory her life has taken. last updated: 2012/11/14 Created 2008/06/07, Last updated 2013/01/29© Return to home page.

The first international fundraising activities for the Irish Famine began in 1845, following the initial appearance of the potato blight, and picked up in the wake of the second, and far more devastating, failure of the potato crop in 1846. Outside intervention was short-lived, however, and by 1848, most of the donations had dried up. Sadly, the Famine was far from over, with more people dying in 1849 than in ‘Black ’47.’ The first place to send money to Ireland was Calcutta in India. The fundraising effort was initiated in 1845 by British citizens who believed that their actions would show the Irish people the benefits of being part of the British Empire. Over forty percent of the British army serving in India were Irish-born and they gave generously. Donations came from wealthy Hindus and a number of Indian princes, but also from those who were less well off, including sepoys in the army, and from many low-skilled and low-paid Indian servants. Within a few months, the Calcutta Committee had raised £14,000 for the relief of the Irish poor. Just as relief efforts were getting underway in India, a committee was established in Boston in the United States. In America, perhaps inevitably, Famine relief became tied up with demands for Irish political independence, with the committee being formed at the initiative of the local Repeal Association (followers of Daniel O’Connell). Predictably, the food shortages were cited as the most recent example of British misrule and of the failure of the British Empire. At a meeting in early December 1845, at which $750 was raised for the Irish poor, one speaker claimed that, due to “the fatal connection of Ireland with England, the rich grain harvests of the former country are carried off to pay an absentee government and absentee landlords.” A number of fundraising committees were established in both Ireland and Britain. One of the most successful and well-respected was the Central Relief Committee of the Society of Friends, which was established in Dublin in November 1846, at the suggestion of Joseph Bewley (a tea and coffee merchant). Though the Irish Quakers were small in number (c. 3,000), they were very successful in raising money outside Ireland. These funds played an important role in providing relief, particularly through the establishment of soup kitchens. By the end of 1847, when their funds dried up, the Quakers had distributed approximately £200,000 worth of relief throughout Ireland. An even larger relief organization was the British Relief Association. It was formed in January 1847 by Lionel de Rothschild, a Jewish banker in London. Again, its fundraising activities were international, with donations being received from locations as diverse as Venezuela, Australia, South Africa, Mexico, Russia and Italy. In total, over 15,000 individual contributions were sent to the Association, and approximately £400,000 was raised. This money was entrusted to a Polish Count, Paul de Strzelecki, a renowned scientist and explorer. He traveled to Counties Mayo and Sligo in 1847, where he established schools at which free food was given to the local children. Unfortunately, the involvement of relief organizations has been tainted by the memory of proselytism or, as it is known in Ireland, souperism, that is, giving relief to the Catholic poor in return for their conversion to Protestantism. Proselytism was not new in Ireland, but its use during this period of suffering seems particularly reprehensible. However, although it is generally associated with the main Protestant churches in Ireland (the Anglican and the Presbyterian) in reality it was only practiced by a minority of evangelicals, who genuinely believed that they were saving souls, not merely lives, by their actions. By the end of 1848 the number of “Bible schools” had grown to 28, despite “priestly opposition.” In popular memory, Queen Victoria is remembered as “The Famine Queen” for allegedly only giving £5 to help the starving Irish. In reality, she donated £2,000 to the British Relief Association in January 1847. This made the Queen the largest single donor to Famine relief. She also published two letters, appealing to Protestants in England to send money to Ireland. Her involvement was widely criticized at the time, notably by the influential newspaper the London Times, which argued that giving money to Ireland would have the same effect as throwing money into an Irish bog. Another head of state to send money to Ireland was the Sultan of Turkey. He had an Irish doctor but he was also trying to create an alliance with the British government. He initially offered £10,000 but the British Consul in Istanbul told him that it would offend royal protocol to send more money than the British Queen. As a result of this diplomatic intervention, Sultan Abdulmecid reduced his donation to £1,000. Log in with your social accounts: Or, log in with your IrishCentral account: Don't have an account yet? Register now ! Join IrishCentral with your social accounts: Already have an account ? Log in Or, sign up for an IrishCentral account below: Make sure we gathered the correct information from you You already have an account on IrishCentral! Please confirm you're the owner. Our new policy requires our users to save a first and last name. Please update your account:

Lower the Flags and Say a Prayer, for Judge Conrad B. Duberstein Has Passed from Our Midst Today I learned the sad news that Conrad B. Duberstein, former Chief Bankruptcy Judge for the Eastern District of New York, died peacefully at his home on November 18, 2005 after a long illness. This legend of the bankruptcy bar and courts will be sorely missed by all those who had the great fortune of being in his presence. We at The Bankruptcy Litigation Blog express our deep condolences to the family of Judge Duberstein, and to his friends and colleagues. May his memory be a blessing and a comfort to those who mourn him. Below is the obituary that appears in today's New York Times, courtesy of Judge Duberstein's former firm, Otterbourg, Steindler, Houston & Rosen, P.C. It speaks volumes of his known -- and unknown -- greatness. His funeral is set for November 21, 2005 at 1 p.m., at Park Avenue Synagogue, 50 East 87th Street in New York City. Please make every effort to attend. Also, please do not hesitate to provide a comment below in honor and memory of this great man, especially during the initial 30 day mourning period. Judge Duberstein's obituary follows below: Conrad B. Duberstein died peacefully at his home on November 18, 2005 at the age of 90. Beloved husband of Anne (nee Saggio), loving father of Elysa Belessakos and father-in-law of Elias; devoted grandfather of Nicole Chemtob (Mark), Josephine and Dimitri Belessakos and Angie Allison; adoring brother of Barbara Roberts and the late Kathryn Goldberg; United States Bankruptcy Judge for the Eastern District of New York; former Chief Bankruptcy Judge of the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of New York, 1984-2005; Courtrooms and Chambers of the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern dedicated in his honor; namesake and guiding spirit of the Judge Conrad B. Duberstein National Bankruptcy Moot Court Competition established by St. John's University School of Law and the American Bankruptcy Institute; served in the 91st Infantry Division of the 5th Army from 1943-1945, saw combat in Italy and was awarded the Bronze Star Medal, the Purple Heart and the Combat Infantry Badge; graduated from Brooklyn College and St. John's University School of Law (class of 1942), admitted to the practice of law in 1942; former partner in Otterbourg, Steindler, Houston & Rosen, P.C. and Schwartz, Rudin & Duberstein; former Judge Advocate General of the Military Order of the Purple Heart for the State of New York; recognized for his outstanding academic and professional achievements including an honorary Doctor of Laws from St. John's University School of Law; awarded Medal of Honor by St. John's University recipient of the Brooklyn Bar of Association's Annual Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Science of Jurisprudence and Public Service; recipient of the Emory University School of Law Lifetime Achievement Award; Fellow American Bar Association and the American College of Bankruptcy. Funeral services will be held at Park Avenue Synagogue, 50 East 87th Street, New York, NY 10128, on November 21st at 1 PM. Those who wish to contribute in his memory to the Park Avenue Synagogue or Congregation Mount Sinai of Brooklyn Heights, New York. Further questions please call Plaza Jewish Community Chapel at 212-769-4400. His former firm, Otterbourg, Steindler, Houston & Rosen, P.C., added the following personal commemoration as a post-script: Otterbourg, Steindler, Houston & Rosen, P.C., mourns the passing of our former partner, friend, mentor and colleague at the age of 90, following a long illness. After retiring from our firm at the age of 65 as a Senior Partner and as the unofficial Dean of the bankruptcy bar of the City of New York, Connie Duberstein was appointed United States Bankruptcy Judge for the Eastern District of New York. In 1984, he became Chief Bankruptcy Judge of the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of New York, a position he held until 2005, during which time the Courtrooms and Chambers of that court were dedicated and named in his honor. Throughout his years on the bench, Connie continued to participate with us in the most important events of our personal lives, including celebrating with us the births and marriages of our children, and joining with us on many other occasions, both joyous and sorrowful. We are honored and proud to have been part of Connie's extended family. A man for all seasons, he had a zest for life and shared with us his love of travel, theater, music and good food, and especially, his love and respect for the law. Connie was a celebrated raconteur, our famous master of ceremonies, and bon vivant, and his wit, warmth, wisdom and humility will be missed by bench and bar. A highly decorated combat veteran of World War II, he faced his final illness with dignity and the same valor he demonstrated on the battlefield in Europe. We will always remember him with great respect and love. Our deepest sympathy and condolences are extended to his wife Anne, his sister Barbara, his daughter Elysa and her husband Elias, his granddaughter Nikki and her husband Mark, and his grandchildren Josephine, Dimitri and Angie. © Steve Jakubowski 2005 A dear friend to all of us in the Weintraub family. The memory of his kindness and his wonderful wit will be with us forever. Our condolences to his family on their loss.

- Screenwriter, Television Producer, Television Director, Actor, Entrepreneur Do you know the net worth? Edwin B. “Ed.” Weinberger is an American screenwriter and television producer. Born and raised in Philadelphia, the only son of a Jewish butcher, Ed. Weinberger began his TV career after he dropped out of Columbia University, writing for such stand-up comedians as Dick Gregory, Richard Pryor and... Ed. Weinberger Stats Nickname: Edwin B. Weinberger, Ed Weinberger, Edwin B. “Ed.” Weinberger Profession: Screenwriter, Television Producer, Television Director, Actor, Entrepreneur Nationality: United States of America Place of Birth: Philadelphia Ed. Weinberger Film Roles Ed. Weinberger Film Producer

Click to enlarge. And sometimes these paired ideas take on a verbal quality that goes beyond mere pictorialism. In this early fifteenth-century wood carving from the cathedral in Erfurt, for example, the composition's major axis is not vertical, as in Gothic architecture, but horizontal, as in writing. The figures are not static and physically separated, as they are at Notre Dame; they are in motion in a story. They are not just pictures; they are characters. Within their story, these characters display the equivalent of the western's black hats and white hats. The hat worn by the figure of Synagogue, for instance, is the helmet-shaped badge of shame prescribed for Jews in medieval Germany, and Synagogue herself is carved in much deeper, more realistic relief than Church. Church has a bland generic face and rides a bland generic St. George horse, but Synagogue's face under her helmet is a grimace out of remembered nightmare and her mount is an image that emerges directly from the German dictionary: the Judensau, reserved in German folk art and folk speech specifically for Jews. There is stylized narrative movement in the image, too: movement from left to right, the direction taken by the good guys in the battle scene of almost every movie you've seen. All of which is a way of saying that in 2010 we read this picture as part of a still living language, in ways we probably can't read the stonework stills from the silent movie that is Notre Dame. But of course, no matter what we read, we read in translation, and translation sometimes approaches us behind the treacherous smile of a faux ami. How do you think you are going to read this next image, for instance? Honolulu Star-Bulletin, March 26, 2009. Photograph by Jamm Aquino. Photograph by Jamm Aquino. No, the bearded man in tallis and yamaka actually isn't Jewish. We know that not because of his East Asian face but because of his red shirt: the uniform worn by a band of Christians demonstrating at the Hawaii state capital against a proposed bill allowing gay civil unions. At the contact zone between Republican politics and evangelical Christianity, the Christian doctrine of supersession sometimes assumes a textile realism in the form of Jewish ritual garments -- and that, and nothing else, is what you're reading here. As to the man in the blue shirt, it might be fun if we could make a correct guess about his religion. Of course we're unlikely to find out, but on the other hand we actually don't even need to learn that part of the story, the part that assures us, "The End." After all, even in the mere ongoing presence of images that can be read only provisionally, the world becomes a comic book where one of the funniest punch lines of them all is, as we say, immer schon available for the reading. That's the one that begins, "Funny, you don't look. . . ."

During the California recall, Lt. Governor Cruz Bustamante was harshly criticized for his refusal to renounce his involvement as a student in the Chicano student group MEChA. Critics frequently called MEChA a hate group, the equivalent of the Klu Klux Klan, or “fascist hatemongers”. Bustamante handily lost the election, and MEChA as an issue didn’t seem to make much of an impact and many voters. But MEChA as an organization is still a presence on over 300 campuses. There was much debate here on LoserNet about the truth of the accusations against MEChA. (Lots of background from me, Pejman, and Tacitus. In short, I thought that they were being unfairly accused, and Pejman and Tacitus thought that they really were a racist group.) We spent a fair amount of time going back and forth about the documents we could find using Google. But I thought that the debate suffered from a lack of input from or contact with actual MEChA members. Few people had had any direct contact with MEChA. (A few exceptions: Kevin Drum had a MEChA chapter at his high school, and Sappho had a personal experience at college.) About a month ago, I thought that I’d try to contact some actual, current members of MEChA to see how they would respond to some of the controversies about their group. I sent out a lot of emails, mostly to dead email addresses culled from infrequently updated chapter web pages. Unfortunately, I’ve only ended up getting two complete responses, but they’re good ones. The first is from the MEChA chapter at New Mexico State University. (UPDATE: Not all responses are from NMSU; the questions were distibuted to other chapters as well.) A representative of the chapter distributed my long list of questions to members and assembled the responses, so it’s not any one person’s response. The second response is from an individual who started his email by saying: I want to emphasize that MEChA IS NOT A HATE/SEGREGATIONALIST/SEPARATIST GROUP I’ve edited these responses slightly for spelling and typos, but I haven’t added or deleted anything. I have no independent ability to fact-check these responses. 1. During the California recall, Cruz Bustamante came under heavy attack from many on the right for his membership as a student in MEChA. MEChA was commonly described by conservative critics as a hate group, the Chicano equivalent of the Klu Klux Klan. How would you respond to these charges? Since a genuine hate group would presumably deny that it was a hate group, what contrary evidence would you present to these critics in an effort to convince them? A. MEChA is not a hate group. However, since these conservative critics have access to media such as Fox News or those on radio such as Rush Limbaugh, it is easier for them to get their voices heard. Also, in the past, one thing that has hurt MEChA is a fear of infiltration. Therefore, for many years, MEChA has been to a certain extent reclusive to many, especially media. I hope that in some of the later questions I can answer the question as to how we are not a hate group, or an exclusionary group. B. There has never been an incident in which a member of MEChA was charged or indicted for a hate crime. There were those in the 1960s who engaged in radical activities, but any intentions were aimed toward institutions/establishments, not people. 2. How would you describe the goals of the nationwide MEChA organization? How would you describe the goals of your chapter? Are they different? A. The goals of both are to educate not only “Chicanas/Chicanos” but everyone else. Promote higher education, while maintaining your roots. Just because you get a college degree, and might have an office doesn’t mean you should forget your history. Another goal is to rid society of the stereotypes that plague all people, regardless of color or sexual orientation. B. There is no “nation-wide” MEChA organization. The main goal of MEChA is to promote higher education while promoting and learning cultural history. 3. How tight or loose is the national MEChA organization? Is there a strong central authority, are chapters left alone to do what they want, or is it somewhere in between? A. It is a tight organization; however, each chapter has its liberties. Because each chapter faces its own problems, it only makes sense to allow them to have their liberties. B. There is no nationwide organiztion. There is a national conference held each year. Because there are so many chapters, it was agreed to develop “regions.” In order to gain input from chapters across the US, a coordinating council was established to help organize the conference. For the most part MEChA chapters are autonomous and work in the interests of their respective communities. 4. How often are there nationwide MEChA conventions or gatherings? What happens at nationwide MEChA conventions? Could you describe the national leadership- is there a president or a leadership committee, are they current students or alumni, is there a nationwide newsletter, etc. A. Nationals are held once a year, but there are many meetings both regionally and nationally leading to the preparation of the national conference. Depending on whatever issues are affecting our people/communities, usually are discussed. The leadership is a committee of four current members, two males and two females, each from a different region. There is no national newsletter. However, the hosting chapter is responsible for keeping the chapters updated on the process. B. As with any organization, there is a need for leaders. The national coordinating council consists of about 10-12 members(two members from each region mentioned above) The chairpersons of the council are one male and one female(to emphasize gender equality.) The national conferences usually consist of workshops on community organizing, leadership and team building, cultural history. At the same time, there are meetings held to discuss and plan national plans of action to address common issues facing communities across the US such as poverty, education, civil rights, etc. 5. If you had to characterize the official attitude of MEChA on racial issues, what would you say? How would you characterize the attitude of the other members of your chapter towards white people? A. To many MEChistas, race is not an issue. Chicanismo is now more a state of mind rather than a state of being. Skin color, religion, sexuality, none of that is important. B. There is no “official” attitude. However, MEChA is all inclusive: members are welcome regardless of ethnicity, nationality, gender/gender preference, handicap, age, or color of skin. 6. What sort of activities does your chapter of MEChA put on? For example, what activities are you putting on this semester/quarter? A. We have many guest speakers from around the country. We have a film festival, have a raza youth mentoring/tutoring service, as well as participating in a campus and city clean up. We have had Aztec Dancers, hosted many conferences, had food, toy, clothing, and blood drives. And many numerous activities, all of which go on year round, in Fall, Spring and Summer semesters. B. Celebrations of Mexican holidays along with other organizations, food/toy drive for impoverished communities, leadership/teambuilding workshops 7. How would you describe MEChA’s role in campus life? Is it often involved in controversy? If so, what kind of controversies has it been involved in? A. We are not often involved in controversy; however we are very active in the campus life. A few years ago, MEChA helped the Black Allied Student Association petition the university against a fraternity for flying a confederate flag, at a football game as well as at there on campus house. The fraternity continued to fly the flag, even after BASA had asked them to please take it down. This became a heated debate on campus and MEChA was the only other student organization to come to BASA’s aid. B. MEChA is welcomed by our academic institution to participate in various activities on and off campus. The only “controversy” was addressing free speech on campus so that free speech areas are not limited to students. 8. Is your chapter of MEChA involved in politics as an organization? (This can be at the campus, local, state or national level.) If so, what political activities do you engage in? If the chapter does not officially engage in politics, do members do so on their own? A. Although MEChA is a non-partisan organization, we have had a role in local politics. We had a mayoral and city council forum. We are very active politically, we just think that issues are more important than party affiliations. B. MEChA as a chapter does not engage in politics. Individual members have helped with campaigns for people running for Mayor, state rep/senator, school district 9. How large is your chapter? A. Currently our membership is 21. However, that fluctuates. It has been as high as 34, and as low as 12. B. About 20. 10. Do you have any members of your chapter who are not Chicanos? If so, how many? How many members do you have who don’t speak Spanish? Is there any sort of policy or guidelines? As a white person, how would I be greeted if I were to express interest in joining MEChA? A. We have a two Native Americans as well as Filipino-Americans, an African-American and an Irish-American. As for non-Mexican-Americans, which is typically considered to be Chicano, there are seven from other Latin American countries. Five don’t speak Spanish. Anyone is welcome regardless of race, as long as they are willing to help out with their share of the work we do on and off campus. B. There are members in the chapter who do not identify as Chicanos, but are in it for various causes. Not all members speak Spanish. The only guideline is to have a 2.0GPA and a $10 membership fee. As mentioned before, members are welcome regardless of ehtnicity, nationality, color of their skin, etc 11. How do you recruit members? A. We actively recruit at all our functions, and we also set up information booths at different times of the year throughout campus. Also the Chicano Programs allows us to set up at any activities they have and we are also allowed to put information in their offices. B. Word of mouth, class presentations. 12. If a member of MEChA was dating a person of a different race, would that be controversial among members of your chapter? What if they were to marry a person of a different race? A. Not at all. A few of our members are involved with people of a different race. It is not looked down upon or controversial. B. Nobody would find it controversial. We would be happy for them. 13. What proportion of the members of your chapter would you say are politically left of center? What proportion are right of center? What proportion aren’t very interested in politics? A. Many of our members most often are left of center. However, we feel that the issues are what are important, not the parties. Although given some of the right wing media has been the most critical and vocal against MEChA, it is easier to lean to the left. B. A great majority are not interested in “left/right wing” politics. However they are interested in the “politicking” that affects our communities (legislation for funding, school district bonds, etc.). 14. Do members of your chapter tend to have any common academic or personal interests, other than Chicano issues? (For example, some campus groups attract a large proportion of pre-law students, some attract education majors, some attract people with an interest in music, and some attract people who just want a social outlet.) A. All of the other organizations within Chicano Programs are based on academic majors. MEChA is open to students of all different majors, regardless of your college anyone can join. This makes for an interesting mix. It allows us to share our knowledge with one another, and makes it less competitive. B. There are a wide range of interests outside of MEChA, politics, and civil rights. There members who are also involved in Christian groups, indigenous organizations, musicians, artists. 15. During the recall campaign, Cruz Bustamente was repeatedly called upon to repudiate MEChA, and he refused to do so. If he had repudiated MEChA, how would it have changed your opinion of him? Do you think that it would have affected his standing among Chicano voters, or do you think that it wouldn’t have caused much concern? A. Well, although we closely followed the recall, I don’t know how it would have changed my opinion of him. Actually, we don’t know to much about Mr. Bustamante here in southern New Mexico. I do think it would have hurt him with “Chicano” voters, but it may have helped him with the “Hispanic” vote. B. Personally, I think only people from California really cared about Bustamante. 16. What is the symbolism behind the lighted stick of dynamite held by the eagle on the MEChA crest? A. To my understanding, it means that we as a people are about to “blow up.” Using the term as slang, it means that Chicanos and Chicanas are ready to become active in their community. B. It symbolizes an explosion of knowledge. 17. Are you familiar with the group “El Voz de Aztlán”? What is your opinion of this group? How would you describe the relationship between MEChA and El Voz de Aztlán? A. Many organizations are automatically associated with MEChA, because of the term Aztlán. However there is no affiliation. El Voz is one of these many groups. Even though there are some MEChistas that belong to some of these other groups, doesn’t mean that there is a relationship on a national level. B. We have never heard of them 18. One of the founding documents of MEChA was “El Plan Espiritual de Aztlán”. A number of MEChA chapters link to this document from their homepage. Are you familiar with this document? What is the role of this document in your chapter? What is your understanding of the role of this document in the national organization? A. The documents are embraced differently by different chapters. Some use them as a foundation, other don’t use them at all. I would say the split is 50-50. Remember that many of those documents were written in the 1960s, a decade of unrest and major civil rights turmoil. I think that if those documents were written today they would be vastly different. B. As far as most people can come to consensus, it is a POEM. It plays NO role in our chapter. 19. One line from the preface to “El Plan Espiritual de Aztlán” was frequently quoted: “Por La Raza todo. Fuera de La Raza nada.” Many critics said that this was your motto, and that it was a racially exclusionary statement that was best translated as “For the Race, Everything. For Those Outside the Race, Nothing.” Is this accurate? If not, what is your motto? What is a good English translation of “Por La Raza todo. Fuera de La Raza nada,” and how is the phrase used in your chapter and the nationwide organization? A. The motto of MEChA is “La Union Hace La Fuerza,” which loosely translated means “Strength in Unity”. I had never heard that other “motto” until the media came out with it during the recall and I have been in MEChA since my freshman year in high school, I am in grad school, finishing in May. That is ten years that I have been involved with MEChA. B. There is only one race. The human race. Its intended meaning is that we do everything for our communities. We do nothing for those who are against our communities. The phrase is not used by anybody for any reason. 20. What does “Aztlán” mean to you? Are there other meanings? A. Aztlán is the native homeland of the Aztecs, prior to the migration south to Mexico. A sense of belonging to the United States. Many of us have heard people say go back to where you came from. This is proof that this is where we came from, this is where we belong. B. Aztlán is not mythical. In indigenous history, Aztlán is the original homeland of a people who migrated south to establish indigenous communities in Mexico. Aztlán can be referred to as the present-day soutwestern US and Northeastern Mexico. 21. Some critics have charged that when MEChA refers to “Aztlán”, it refers to the Southwestern portion of the United States. They charge that MEChA would like to claim this land mass away from the United States. They charge that MEChA would either like to make this area part of Mexico, or make it into a new, exclusionary Chicano state. They point to the MEChA constitution, which says in the preamble, “Chicano and Chicana students of Aztlán must take upon themselves the responsibilities to promote Chicanismo within the community, politicizing our Raza with an emphasis on indigenous consciousness to continue the struggle for the self-determination of the Chicano people for the purpose of liberating Aztlán.” What does the MEChA constitution mean when it refers to “liberating Aztlán”? A. To me it is a state of mind. If we don’t allow people to force assimilation on us, then we remain liberated. B. There is no wish to take land and establish a “Chicano state.” The liberation of Aztlán refers to the liberation of ideologies so that people can find and realize their own identities and philosophies. What do you personally think of this idea? What do you think the members of your chapter would think about this idea? A. I don’t think that anyone is ready to declare war on the U.S. Also, just a bit of historical background. The official map to the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, recognized by both the U.S. and Mexican Governments, shows in what is today modern day Utah, as the “Ancient Homeland of the Aztecs.” This map can be found at the library of congress in Washington D.C., however it may be difficult to find, as it is located in the basement with many other old maps. I have seen it myself and was able to make a black and white copy of it. When I get a chance I will send you the official name of the map. 22. The Sierra Times had a quote from a member of MEChA: “Asked about his group’s ideology and intentions, Miguel Perez of Cal State-Northridge’s MEChA chapter replied: “The ultimate ideology is the liberation of Aztlán. Communism would be closest [to it].” Once Aztlán is established, continued Perez, ethnic cleansing would commence: “Non-Chicanos would have to be expelled opposition groups would be quashed because you have to keep power.” What is your reaction to Miguel Perez’s statement? As far as you know, would MEChA officially support the idea of establishing a state anywhere in the world in which Chicanos had legal superiority over Anglos and other ethnicities? Would you or any of the members of your chapter of MEChA support the establishment of such a state? A. I don’t know of anyone who has ever expressed an interest in ethnic cleansing. I don’t support this, and neither do any of our members. B. That’s a radical way of THINKING. There is no clandestine movement to establish this “state.” Personally, I think Perez is misguided. 23. Some critics have charged that MEChA is an anti-Semitic organization. They point to an incident at CalPoly in 1998 where a printed MEChA conference program began by welcoming the participants to “Cal Poly State Jewniversity” and including a reference to the city of “Jew York.” What is your reaction to that? Do you have any Jewish members? Has your chapter had any noteworthy contact, either positive or negative, with Jewish groups, synagogues, etc? A. Our chapter, to my knowledge, doesn’t have any Jewish members currently. There have been some in the past, but religion has never been an issue. There is not a big Jewish community in our town, so it makes it difficult for us to network with any synagogues. B. It is obviously another misguided mind blurting out what they might think is “harmless” lingo. I can see where it would be offensive to people whether they are Jewish or not. We do not have Jewish members because there aren’t any Jewish people interested in MEChA. 24. Would you be opposed to an organization which had the same sorts of goals and activities as MEChA, but was centered around Anglos rather than Chicanos? Why or why not? A. If Anglos had been discriminated upon by other people for as long as Chicanos, Black, and any other minority have, then no, I would have no problem with it. I think the importance of groups like MEChA is to help those who have been oppressed throughout history. B. There are such organizations. They are called fraternities and sororities. We have also worked with them on various activities. 25. I imagine that when this is posted, conservative critics will say that the answers that you provide are self-serving- that you are concealing the extremist views that are a part of MEChA’s current thinking. What would you say to those critics? Is there any sort of evidence that you can provide outside of your own words? A. Well, according to that argument, every interview is self-serving. Are they not self-serving when they only present one side of the story? The only evidence that can be provided is that of the community. The communities know the hard work that MEChA has put in. Going to tutor middle school and high school kids. Helping them fill out college applications, and financial aid papers. Raising food and money for those less fortunate. Taking coats and toys to the kids when it gets cold and the holidays are around the corner. As a proud mechista, I say to those who question my involvement, what I am doing today isn’t to help me, but rather those who come after me. I hope that what I’ve done today helps my children and that they do something to help the generation that follows them. B. I really don’t care what they think.

GAINESVILLE, Fla. (AP) -- The leader of a tiny church on Thursday backed off his threat to burn the Quran, saying he gave up the plan in exchange for a deal to move a planned Islamic center and mosque away from New York's ground zero. The imam planning the center, however, quickly denied any such deal. The Rev. Terry Jones had been under intense pressure to back off, including a statement from President Barack Obama and a personal call from U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates. Jones made his announcement outside his church alongside Imam Muhammad Musri, the president of the Islamic Society of Central Florida. After the news conference, Musri told The Associated Press there was an agreement for him and Jones to travel to New York and meet Saturday - on the actual anniversary of the 9/11 attacks - with the imam overseeing plans to build a mosque near ground zero. "I told the pastor that I personally believe the mosque should not be there, and I will do everything in my power to make sure it is moved," Musri said. "But there is not any offer from there (New York) that it will be moved. All we have agreed to is a meeting, and I think we would all like to see a peaceful resolution." Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf said he was surprised by the announcement and that he would not barter. Speaking to reporters later, Jones was adamant that he was promised that the Islamic center would be moved, and said he would be "very, very disappointed" if it were not. Jones, the pastor of a Florida Pentecostal church of 50 members, has said that he believes the Quran is evil because it espouses something other than biblical truth and incites radical, violent behavior among Muslims. Jones on Thursday said he prayed about the decision and that if the site of the mosque was moved, it would be a sign from God to call off the Quran burning. "We are, of course, now against any other group burning Qurans," Jones said during the news conference. We would right now ask no one to burn Qurans. We are absolutely strong on that. It is not the time to do it." His decision comes after a firestorm of criticism from leaders around the world. President Barack Obama, the top U.S. general in Afghanistan and several Christian leaders had urged Jones to reconsider his plans. They said his actions would endanger U.S. soldiers and provide a strong recruitment tool for Islamic extremists. Jones' protest also drew criticism from religious and political leaders from across the Muslim world. They warned that the plan would put Americans in danger around the world. In Afghanistan, hundreds of angry Afghans burned an American flag and chanted "Death to the Christians" to protest the planned Quran burning. Musri thanked Jones and his church members "for making the decision today to defuse the situation and bring to a positive end what has become the world over a spectacle that no one would benefit from except extremists and terrorists" who would use it to recruit future radicals. Russ Blackburn, Gainesville city manager: "It's very good news for Gainesville and good news for everyone involved." Jones' neighbors in Gainesville, a city of 125,000 anchored by the sprawling University of Florida campus, also have said they disapprove. At least two dozen Christian churches, Jewish temples and Muslim organizations in the city have mobilized to plan inclusive events - some will read from the Quran at their own weekend services. Jones' Dove Outreach Center is independent of any denomination. It follows the Pentecostal tradition, which teaches that the Holy Spirit can manifest itself in the modern day. Pentecostals often view themselves as engaged in spiritual warfare against satanic forces. TRENDING IN NEWS

The Cook’s Temptation by Joyce Wayne It’s 1881. What happens when Cordelia, a Jewish woman, marries the wealthiest man in the West Country of England? At the same time, typhoid is raging throughout Devon and the epidemic appears to be radiating from the Devil’s Stone, an ancient country eatery in the village of Shebbear and home to Cordelia Tilley and her mismatched family. Book Summary From: Joyce Wayne’s Personal Website

Here is a look at the updates — Covid-19tally raced past 52 lakh with 96,424 people testing positive in a day, while the number of people who have recuperated from the disease rose to 41,12,551 on Friday. The total coronavirus cases mounted to 52,14,677, while the death toll climbed to 84,372 with the virus claiming 1,174 lives in 24 hours. India’s Covid-19 tally raced past 52 lakh with 96,424 people testing positive in a day, while the number of people who have recuperated from the disease rose to 41,12,551 on Friday. The total Covid cases mounted to 52,14,677, while the toll climbed to 84,372 with the virus claiming 1,174 lives in a - Parliament passes bill to reduce for one-year salaries of MPs by 30 per cent ‘to meet exigencies arising out of Covid-19 pandemic’. - Rahul Gandhi slams Centre for neglecting healthcare staff who test positive for Covid-19. “Adverse data-free Modi government! The beating of ‘thali’ and the lighting of a lamp is more important than security and respect. Modi Government, why are corona warriors being insulted?” the Congress leader tweeted (roughly translated from Hindi). - 5,601 coaches have been converted into Covid Care Centers by Indian Railways in March, April, May and June to combat the pandemic, according to the ministry of railways. - ICMR Sero survey conducted in April-May found 6.4 mn adults above the age of 18 years as infected, according to Dr Sanjay Rai, AIIMS. - Nearly 30 Covid vaccine candidates are under development and are in different stages of pre-clinical and clinical development. Out of this, 3 candidates are in an advanced stage of Phase I/II/III trials and 4 are in the advanced pre-clinical development stage, according to the ministry of science and technology. J&K: The number of COVID-19 cases in Jammu and Kashmir zoomed past the 60,000-mark on Friday as the union territory recorded 1,330 fresh cases, while 15 more fatalities pushed the death toll to 966. It was for the 16th consecutive day that the number of fresh cases has crossed 1000 in a 24-hour period. HIMACHAL PRADESH: The government has decided to reopen schools from Classes 9 to 12 from Monday. These schools will be opened with 50 per cent teaching and non-teaching staff in attendance for students from Class 9 to Class 12, provided the students are willing to take guidance from the teachers. UTTARAKHAND: The 2021 Haridwar Kumbh will be held with a restriction on the number of people congregating for the event. DELHI: Schools to remain closed for all students till October 5, according to Delhi government. GUJARAT: Former Gujarat CM Keshubhai Patel tests positive. The 92-year-old leader’s family said he is in home isolation in Gandhinagar. BIHAR: The Election Commission of India has has asked authorities to prepare a separate voters list for Corona-positive patients. The decision was taken on Friday amid campaigning for the Bihar elections, expected to be held in October or November this year. MEGHALAYA: Schools in Meghalaya which are shut for six months due to the Covid-19 pandemic will partially reopen from next week for students to meet teachers to clarify their doubts. The schools will be open for students of class 9 to 12 to meet teachers to clear their doubts but there will be no regular classes and no classroom session. TRIPURA: The state figures in the bottom of Covid-19 death rate, while six of the eight northeastern states’ recovery rates are less than the national average of 78.86 per cent, Union Health ministry data revealed on Friday. According to the data released by the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW), Tripura topped the death ratio among the eight northeastern states in terms of Covid-19 cases with 1.09 per cent, followed by Sikkim (0.97 per cent), Meghalaya (0.71), Manipur (0.60), Assam (0.35), Nagaland (0.28) and Arunachal Pradesh (0.19 per cent). WEST BENGAL: A Deputy Commissioner of Kolkata Police has been admitted to hospital after she tested positive for COVID-19. Deputy Commissioner of South East Division of Kolkata Police Debasmita Das was taken to the hospital on Thursday where she is undergoing treatment. MAHARASHTRA: Two Maharashtra ministers- Nitin Raut and Hasan Mushrif- on Friday said they have tested coronavirus positive. Raut is the energy minister and the working president of the state Congress, while Mushrif is the rural development minister and NCP leader. ANDHRA PRADESH: Andhra Pradesh has been consistent in clocking a higher number of recoveries than the daily detection rate of new Covid infections. The state reported 8,096 new coronavirus cases on Friday, pushing the tally to 6.09 lakh, while the overall recoveries mounted to 5.19 lakh, after 11,803 more people recovered on the same day. KARNATAKA: The Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation on Friday said it will restart its operations to Maharashtra from September 22. - Israel imposed a second nationwide lockdown on Friday to tackle one of the world’s highest coronavirus infection rates, despite public protests over the new blow to the economy. The three-week shutdown from 2 pm (1100 GMT) started just hours before Rosh Hashana, the Jewish new year, and will extend through other key religious holidays, including Yom Kippur and Sukkot. - Confirmed cases of the coronavirus have topped 30 million worldwide, according to a Johns Hopkins University tally. - A new small-boxed Covid-19 rapid test device, which gives results within 90 minutes, has been found to have a high level of accuracy and produced very few false negatives and no false positives in a UK study. The Lab-in-Cartridge tests can be performed in cartridges smaller than a mobile phone and do not require a laboratory. - Chinese hackers have stolen information from Spanish laboratories working on a vaccine for Covid-19, El Pais newspaper reported Friday. The report emerged as drug companies around the world race to produce an effective jab to counter a virus that has now killed more than 940,000 people and infected 30 million. - Researchers have created a 90-minute high-speed Covid-19 test which does not require a laboratory and can be performed in cartridges smaller than a mobile phone with high accuracy.

- Open Access Indonesian Islamic institutions between the foundation and endowment laws: a critical legal analysis SpringerPlus volume 5, Article number: 1213 (2016) This research-based paper examined the Indonesian foundation and endowment laws in relation to educational and religious institutions which are managed under foundation legal structure. The institutions examined were: 1) The Pondok Pesantren al-Ansor Foundation in Padangsidimpuan City; 2) The Pesantren Dar al-Ma’arif Education Foundation in South Labuhanbatu Regency; and 3) The Masjid Agung Foundation in Medan City. Using legal sociology and critical legal analysis, data were collected through field research, document study, and in-depth interviews. The documents studied were laws, books, papers, and other related writings relevant to this research. Interviews were conducted with informants obtained from snowball sampling and key person methods. It was found that in terms of foundation wealth, these institutions can be categorized into three: (1) foundation with founder’s wealth; (2) foundation with endowment wealth; and (3) foundation with both founder’s and endowment wealth. Even though both foundation and endowment legal structures have the same aim of societal welfare, it was found that when they are merged into one legal structure, the foundation becomes more dominant, and there is a risk that the endowment asset’s status become unclear. The asset may be sold or its status may be changed from endowment wealth to foundation wealth. This unclear status may also be caused by conflict of interests among the foundation members and people involved in the foundations. Even when the foundation status is clear, most if not all foundation members violate the rules stipulated by the Foundation Law. The lack of status clarity has caused these institutions to become objects of conflict. There is a need to position the status of these institutions accurately and it is recommended that the endowment legal structure is used for institutions with endowment wealth. Many social and religious institutions in Indonesia were founded by individuals and organizations to realize social goals, such as building educational, health, and religious facilities. In most cases, the founders of these facilities are wealthy enough such that they can set aside a portion of their wealth to build these facilities without expecting any return; in other words, they are of sincere hearts. More often than not, these facilities are built using legal structures in the form of a foundation (yayasan), endowment (wakaf) in the form an endowment management body (badan kenazhiran wakaf—BKW), or a foundation which has endowment assets (harta wakaf). If the legal structure is in the form of an endowment management body, Law No. 41 Year 2004 on Endowment (Endowment Law 2004)Footnote 1 must be adhered to in any endowment transactions or endowment asset management. For example, the endowing procedure must be clear, such as when the endower surrenders part of his or her wealth as endowment (endowment pledge—ikrar wakaf) and the appointment of endowment manager (nazhir wakaf) to maintain and develop endowment wealth according to the purpose of the endower and the endowment (ghardh al wāqif dan waqf).Footnote 2 If the legal structure is in the form of foundation (yayasan), then the Law No. 16 Year 2001 on Foundation (Foundation Law 2001),Footnote 3 and its subsequent modification, and the Law No. 28 Year 2004 on Foundation (Foundation Law 2004)Footnote 4 must be obeyed. The foundation founders must separate their personal wealth from the foundation wealth, appoint a management team, and set the purpose of the foundation to fulfill social, religious, or environmental goals,Footnote 5 without expecting any return from whatever profit that the foundation may accrue.Footnote 6 Both of the above laws clearly regulate two distinct legal structures: foundation and endowment.Footnote 7 Even though the former legal structure, foundation, originates from the Western tradition, it has in essence the same social welfare purpose as endowment, which originates from the Islamic tradition.Footnote 8 In the Foundation Law 2001 and 2004, it is stipulated that the management of the foundation is composed of the Governing (Pembina), the Supervisory (Pengurus), and the Executive (Pengawas) Boards. It must be noted that under this Law, the founder of the foundation who also acts as members of the Governing Board must not receive any salary directly or indirectly from the foundation. It is also similarly stipulated that any members of the Executive and Supervisory Board related to or affiliated with the founders also cannot receive a salary. As such, it is clear that an individual who intends to build a foundation ideally must have sufficient wealth which can be allocated for the foundation for the purpose of social welfare without expecting any return from the foundation’s wealth. The concept of endowment in Islam is that of a continuous charity (‘amal jariah), in which the endower will be rewarded perpetually for his or her endowment which benefits society at large.Footnote 9 In the Endowment Law 2004, it is clearly stipulated that an endower has surrendered his or her rights to the wealth being endowed for social or religious purpose.Footnote 10 This endowment wealth or asset is managed and developed by an endowment manager. The management can be composed of an individual, a legal structure such as foundation (yayasan), or organization such as mass-organization (organisasi kemasyarakatan—ormas). The endowment manager is responsible to maintain the endowment wealth by administering, managing, and developing the wealth in accordance to the purpose of the endower and the endowment. The Endowment Law 2004 in Article 12 has stipulated that the manager has the right to take not more than 10 % of the endowment management returns to cover the operational cost of the endowment management. In Article 10 of the same Law, it has been stipulated that if the endowment management is in the form of foundation, it must fulfill the following requirement: the Executive Board of the foundation must be composed of members well-versed in law and endowment; that is a member must be Muslim, Indonesian citizen, of legal age, trustworthy, and has the physical and mental ability to manage the endowment. In addition, the Foundation Law has stipulated that a foundation can possess wealth or asset in the form of endowment. It must be noted that the word endowment can be mentioned after the word foundation. In short, the foundation wealth must originate from endowment and the foundation must manage the endowment to enable the word endowment to be mentioned after the word foundation. Further, Article 26 of Foundation Law 2001 states that the foundation’s wealth comes from the endowment wealth, and as such, the Endowment Law 2004 applies in any issue related to the foundation. As such, the normative implications when the two legal structures (endowment and foundation) are combined into a social, education, or religious institution needs to be understood. For example, the foundation’s Executive Board members who are related or affiliated with the Governing Board members cannot receive a salary. In contrast, the endowment management members can receive a salary not more than 10 % of the endowment management returns. In addition, a foundation can be dissolved; its wealth transferred into other foundation with the same purpose or transferred to the state to be administered according to the foundation’s purpose.Footnote 11 In contrast, the endowment wealth or asset must be used in accordance with the goal of the endower and the endowment; it cannot be modified or transferred by the endowment managers.Footnote 12 If the endowment is managed under a foundation, the endowment asset should be clearly categorized as endowment inventory under foundation management. This categorization will ensure that when the foundation Executive Board dissolve the foundation for any reason, the endowment asset can be transferred in accordance with the goals of the endowment and the endower. As such, every endowment under a foundation management must have an authentic proof (bukti otentik). Further, foundations that have wealth in the form of endowment asset should include the word endowment after the word foundation. However, this inclusion is not mandated in the Foundation Law stipulations. Article 3 Clause 3 of the Government Regulation No. 63 Year 2008 on the Implementation of Foundation Law (Government Regulation 2008)Footnote 13 only states that the word endowment can (not must) be added when a foundation’s wealth takes the form of endowment. Normatively, it should be understood that a foundation’s Executive Board members cannot receive a salary directly or indirectly from the foundation unless they are not related or affiliated with the foundation’s founders. Only members with no relation or affiliation can receive a salary. As such, when an endowment is managed under a foundation, the endowment’s 10 % return (which could be spent as salary) is the property of the foundation, not individual foundation members. Only the foundation as a whole, not any of its individual members, can decide the salary the Executive Board members or other relevant persons. Ideally, the foundation founders are not given salary directly or indirectly from the foundation. However, in reality many foundations’ practices diverge from this ideal, be the legal structures take the form of pure foundation or foundation with endowment. This paper examines the implementation of both legal structures in North Sumatra, focusing on the following questions: What are the types of foundation in North Sumatra?; What are the foundations’ activities?; What is the motivation of an individual to found a foundation?; Are there any foundation with endowment assets?; Is there a conflict between the Foundation and Endowment Laws on a foundation with endowment assets?; Do the founders and the members of a foundation receive a salary from their foundation? A qualitative research, this study examined the management and types of Islamic institutions with endowment assets under the foundation legal structure in North Sumatra. Using legal sociology and critical legal analysis methods, this study investigated the implementation of Foundation and Endowment laws in these institutions through field research, document study, and in-depth interviews.Footnote 14 The documents studied were laws, books, papers, and other related writings relevant to this research. Interviews were conducted with informants obtained from snowball sampling and key person methods. The types of institutions under foundation management Foundation wealth can be categorized into three: First, founder’s wealth, which later can be declared as endowment wealth; Second, endowment wealth from the very beginning; Third, founder’s and endowment wealth. Foundation activities can be divided into three: social, humanitarian, and religious. In terms of activities, the foundations discussed in this paper are humanitarian and religious foundations. The humanitarian foundation conduct Islamic education activities such as pesantren (Islamic boarding school) and madrasah (Islamic school), while the religious foundation manage a mosque. The Pondok Pesantren al-Ansor Foundation (Yayasan Pondok Pesantren al-Ansor) in Padangsidimpuan City The foundation was founded by Kyai Haji (KH.) Sahdi Ahmad Lubis in 1994. In the beginning, the foundation borrowed the classrooms of the South Tapanuli Higher Institute of Islamic Studies (Sekolah Tinggi Agama Islam Tapanuli Selatan—STAITA) located in Ade Irma Suryani street in Padangsidimpuan city to conduct its pondok pesantren classes. In its first year, the pesantren only had 5 students. In 1995, a friend of the founder endowed the pesantren with a piece of land, which the foundation used to build a simple classroom. When the classroom was built, the foundation head borrowed a classroom of religious primary school (madrasah ibtidaiyah diniyah) at the Manunggang village, 600 m away from the current pesantren location. In 1997, the classroom building was completed at Manunggang village, Southeast Padangsidimpuan District (Kecamatan). The foundation structure was as follows: The Governing Board was composed of only the founder, KH. Sahdi Ahmad Lubis. The Executive and Supervisory Board members of the foundation were held by KH. Lubis’ family members, such as his blood relatives and wife. The activities of the foundation were conducted by the madrasah tsanawiyah director and head, positions which were also held by the foundation’s founder, KH. Lubis. After the foundation moved to its new location, with its own building and classrooms, it became more successful. Its pesantren, with salafiyah as well as madrasah tsanawiyah and aliyah curriculum, now has about 1000 students. Also, it now has more teachers in addition to its own alumni; graduates from religious and general Indonesian universities, as well as from Middle Eastern universities, now teach at the pesantren. In addition to the rapid increase in student number, the pesantren land has also increased as the foundation founder purchases land around the pesantren. What was initially a 1 ha endowed land increased to become an 8 ha endowed land, with a number of buildings used as classrooms, foundation and administration office, hall, teacher’s lounge, student dormitory, common kitchen, library, computer laboratory, mosque, sports arena, and teacher’s houses. There are a number of ponds in the pesantren, its slightly sloping land contour planted with many trees, creating a cool and beautiful location. The ponds are used as a practice location for a small fishery industry, with the largest one at about 100 × 60 × 7 m used as the main water source. The funding source of this foundation comes from Student Fees (Sumbangan Pembinaan Pendidikan—SPP), as well as student business units of canteen, general kitchen catering, and a small fisheries industry. The foundation head also actively communicates with donors, local government, and the Ministry of Religious affairs to seek funding as grants to build classrooms, student dormitory, administrator office, road paving, and bridge building at the pesantren. In terms of foundation management, there are several issues regarding the legal status of the foundation Executive Board and the foundation wealth from the perspective of Foundation and Endowment laws. First, the foundation has endowment as foundation asset in addition to the land purchased by the founders. Second, the founder holds three overlapping positions: as members of the Governing and Executive Board, as well as the implementer of the foundation activities. Normatively, the founder is legally at fault for holding these overlapping positions, especially as madrasah head the founder obtain salary from the foundation. Third, from the perspective of Endowment Law 2004, the endowed land must be protected by the endowment manager to prevent it from being sold, given, or inherited. However, the endowed land is only pledged verbally by the endower to the foundation head with Endowment Pledge Deed (Akta Ikrar Wakaf—AIW) issued by the Official in-charge of Endowment Pledge Deed (Pejabat Pembuat Akta Ikrar Wakaf). As such, there is a possibility that the endowed land status may become obscure later and even change into non-endowed status. Through interview with the founder, it was found out that he has not understood the consequence of using the foundation legal structure for his pesantren. He has not understood that the foundation wealth belongs to the foundation, not him as a founder, and as such it cannot be transferred to anyone else, including himself or the members of the Executive and Supervisory Board. Also, he has not understood that any person with relation or affiliation to him cannot receive a salary, directly or indirectly, from the foundation. The founder simply stated that he wished to dedicate his knowledge and energy to educate people with religious knowledge according to his expertise, and that he will make a living through his pesantren. Along the way, he became interested to obtain funding from the government, and he was told that he needed to create a foundation legal structure to get this funding. It was then that he visited a public notary to request a Notary Deed on Pondok Pesantren al-Ansor (Akta Notaris Yayasan Pondok Pesantren al-Ansor) without understanding the consequence. He also stated that he was not informed by anyone on this consequence.Footnote 15 The Pesantren Dar al-Ma’arif Education Foundation (Yayasan Pendidikan Pesantren Dar al-Ma’arif) in South Labuhanbatu Regency The foundation main activity is providing Islamic education in the form of pondok pesantren. It was founded by the late KH. Abdullah Afandi in 1992. He held the position of the Head of the foundation Executive Board as stated in the Notary Deed No. 45 Year 1992, which was issued before Foundation Law 2001 had taken effect. After the founder passed away, in 2005 the foundation deed was changed to suit the Foundation Law 2001 and 2004. The late KH. Abdullah Afandi has 11 children: 6 sons and 5 daughters. The youngest son had passed away in 1998, hence when Abdullah Afandi passed away, he left 10 children. In the Deed, two of his sons were appointed as members of the Governing Board: Abu Khalil and Fakhruddin. Another two were appointed as members of the Executive Board: Haji (H.) Ahmad Rifai and Abdul Hakim, as head and secretary respectively. A grandson, Syahrul Anwar was appointed as treasury, and a son-in-law, H. Rajuddin, was appointed as a Supervisory Board member. On the other hand, the foundation land has pledged as endowed land by the late KH. Abdullah Afandi before the Pejabat Pembuat Akta Ikrar Wakaf in Kotapinang District in 1993. Abu Khalil, his son, was appointed as the endowment manager. Now, he also holds the position of the Governing Board member of the foundation. In addition to 3 ha of land being endowed formally for the pondok pesantren, KH. Abdullah Afandi had also endowed an oil palm plantation to fund the operational cost of the pesantren and the building of its infrastructures, albeit verbally or informally. This informal or verbal endowment has remained until now. The infrastructures built at the pesantren were dormitory, classrooms, and teachers’ housing. The funding source for this infrastructure also came from the community endowment and government grants. As the bulk of the foundation’s wealth comes from endowment, it is advisable that the word endowment (wakaf) is added after the word foundation (yayasan) to become yayasan wakaf and the endowment management should take the form of the foundation, as in accordance with Article 5 of the Government Regulation 2008. Thus, it can become clear that the endowment status is the most dominant in this Islamic education institution. Recently, there is a significant problem facing the pesantren. After 10 years of the founder’s death, many of his heirs view the pesantren as inheritance which they can manage in accordance with inheritance norm. They do not legally understand the function of positions in the foundation structure and the status of the endowment asset. As such, the position of the Governing Board member as the highest position in the foundation is ignored by the Executive Board members, who act on his own without following the instruction of the Governing and Supervisory Board members. The Executive Board member always perform activities in contradiction with the Foundation Statute (Anggaran Dasar Yayasan), such as doubling up as activity implementer in catering management. The financial report and business unit income is also inaccessible, even though in the Foundation Law it has been stated that Executive Board members who have relation or affiliation with the Governing Board members cannot receive a salary from the foundation, be it directly or indirectly.Footnote 16 Furthermore, there is an unlawful activity performed by the Executive Board member concerning the endowment asset. The pesantren location which has been pledged formally by the late founder was not maintained properly; its original borders were disregarded. When a concrete wall was built to enclose the pesantren, these borders were ignored such that there was only 7 × 100 m of land left. When the Governing Board member asked the Supervisory Board member about this, the latter answered that when the wall was being built, he has mentioned to the Secretary of the Executive Board the original borders of the pesantren land. However, the Secretary ignored the fact and replied that the wall was built as such due to a lack of funds. Another more serious violation of the Endowment Law 2004 can be found in the change of endowed land status by the Executive Board members. One hectare out of the 3 ha of plantation land endowed by the late endower who was also the foundation founder was sold by the foundation secretary to the public. The land was divided into plots and sold without the knowledge of the endowment manager who also sits on the Governing Board. The sale also did not follow the proper endowment asset transfer procedure. When the endowment manager demanded an explanation from the foundation secretary, the latter claimed that the plantation land did not have an endowment deed and was unsafe from the oil palm theft committed most probably from people around the land. The secretary also claimed that the plantation land has been replaced by another 2 ha of plantation land located close to the pesantren. The manager asked the secretary the sale price of the land plots, but the latter did not answer clearly. The manager found out that the secretary sold the land at 20 million rupiah a plot, netting him a total of 800 million rupiah as there are 40 land plots altogether. The purchase price of the new plantation land was only 500 million rupiah. As such, there is a sum of 300 million rupiah unaccounted by the secretary and not reported to the Governing Board member who is also the endowed land manager.Footnote 17 The above sale also did not involve the Indonesian Endowment Agency (Badan Wakaf Indonesia—BWI) as stipulated in the Endowment Law 2004 and Government Regulation No. 42 Year 2006 (Government Regulation 2006).Footnote 18 In the Endowment Law 2004, it has been stipulated in Article 67 Clause 1, that the violator could be jailed for 5 years and/or fined 500 million rupiah.Footnote 19 When the secretary heard this information, he defended himself by saying that the sale did not involve any endowed land, but instead his own land, which happened to be located close by. The manager/Governing Board member then asked the secretary about the relationship between the sold land and the 2 ha of the supposedly replaced land. Many other related questions were asked, but the secretary was not willing to answer clearly. He also refused to attend any meetings with the manager/Governing Board member, who also happens to be his older brother. From the perspective of foundation law, the secretary has violated the stipulation that he should follow the instruction of the Governing Board member, whose position is doubly strong as the endowment manager. He was told that the funding origin to build the pesantren infrastructure must be clear in its origin due to the sacred nature of the pesantren as religious education institution. To date, the secretary has used funding from money given by the public as charity due to his position as the caretaker spiritual leader (murshid) of the Naqshabandi Tariqa, a position which he holds after the death of the last murshid, his oldest brother, Shaykh Ahmad Rifai. He claimed that his father also did in his tenure as the foundation Executive Board head.Footnote 20 The Governing Board member/endowment manager then clarified that their father was different from them. KH. Abdullah Afandi was the murshid of the Tariqa, while his children are not. As such, Afandi had the right to manage the Tariqa’s wealth as he sees fit, as well as obtaining a salary out of the management duty. He also had the right to use the wealth for the benefit of the Dar al-Ma’arif Pesantren. As the foundation secretary and his other siblings are not the murshid of the Tariqa, any amount of money used to contribute to the pesantren infrastructure must be recorded as debt to be paid to the Tariqa in a later time. Another complication can be found in the view of the foundation founder heir’s that the pesantren is part of their inheritance. Most probably because of their legal ignorance, the heirs could not distinguish between inheritance, foundation, and endowment matters. When the secretary was asked about the sale of the 6.5 ha oil palm plantation for 500 million rupiah, he answered that the money was part of his inheritance. He mentioned that their other male siblings were also given the same size of land. The manager then asked that he only inherited 6 ha of empty land, without any plantation, which was then purchased by their older brother for 4 million rupiah in 2005. This amount of money is very little compared to what the secretary has obtained with his supposed land inheritance. The secretary answered that because he is the one who remains in the pesantren location to fully manage it, he deserves to have more inheritance.Footnote 21 He mentioned that he has developed 10 ha of oil palm plantation to fund the pesantren and build its infrastructures. The manager then stated that the pesantren has not been managed as well as it should, for example by increasing the learning and teaching quality, streamlining administration, and strengthening the endowment and foundation legal status. The secretary responded that he is responsible only to manage only the pesantren’s infrastructure development,Footnote 22 a statement contrary to his early response of being responsible for the full management of the pesantren. As can be seen from the above elaboration, it is very complicated to manage a foundation with endowment assets, especially if the foundation has family members who sit at the Governing, Supervisory, and Executive Boards. The legal ignorance of the members is compounded by the complex foundation, endowment, and inheritance law and norms. In the Pesantren Dar al-Ma’arif’s case, conflicts have indeed occurred when the members act not in accordance with the normative stipulations contained in the Foundation and Endowment Laws. If not dealt correctly and sensitively, the conflict may escalate and become intractable, causing damage to the good works which have been done to build the pesantren. The Masjid Agung Foundation (Yayasan Masjid Agung) in Medan City The Masjid Agung of North Sumatra, which was founded in the 1960s, is located on the Diponegoro Street. It has an area of 43 × 43 m, with a tower building and office facility. A large parking space ensures the comfort of this mosque’s visitors, who mostly come with their vehicles. The land for Masjid Agung was endowed by the Bukit Barisan Commander of the Regional Military Command (Pangdam Bukit Barisan).Footnote 23 At the time of endowment, the Endowment Law 2004 had not yet been passed, hence the land endowment has not been formalized in the form of Endowment Pledge Deed. Later, some members of the public felt the need to create a foundation to manage the mosque. dr. Fanani Lubis was the Head of the Executive Board and Dr. Abdullah Syah was a member of the same board. The latter resigned in the 1990s and requested the management of the mosque be transferred to the Governor of North Sumatra, as he felt there were improprieties in the foundation which managed the mosque. However, the Head of the Foundation refused to transfer the mosque management to the Governor. A few years ago, a conflict occurred regarding the mosque management, which later became very public. The public was worried that the unclear status of the mosque’s land can obscure its endowment status, which so far has only been mentioned verbally by the foundation members.Footnote 24 There was also a concern regarding the income and expenditure of the foundation. Some foundation members suspected that the foundation treasury was improperly managed, and hence requested that the foundation return to its mission of serving the public through social and religious services, instead of benefitting only the foundation members. It was reasoned that that as the foundation wealth comes from endowment, the word endowment should be mentioned after the word foundation and the endowment management is handled by the foundation as a whole, in accordance with Article 3 Clause 3 and 4 of the Government Regulation 2008. In addition, it was found that the foundation has for years managed the mosque without the Mosque Management Body (Badan Kemakmuran Masjid - BKM).Footnote 25 A later Bukit Barisan Pangdam thus took an initiative to resolve the conflict. A Resolution Team was formed, which members consisted of the Mayor of Medan, the Indonesian Endowment Agency (Badan Wakaf Indonesia—BWI) of North Sumatra, and the Indonesian Ulama Council (Majelis Ulama Indonesia—MUI) of Medan City. The BWI head recommended that the former foundation should be dissolved and a management committee in the form of Endowment Management Body should be formed to manage the mosque. This recommendation was agreed by all the Team members. In May 2015, a BKW of the mosque, composed of several distinguished individuals, was formed before a Public Notary.Footnote 26 The Medan Mayor was appointed as the Head of the Executive Board, and members consisted of MUI Medan scholars and other notable individuals. Discussion and analysis From the above elaboration, it can be seen that there are three types of foundation wealth: (1) One with founder’s wealth, which later can be declared as endowment wealth; (2) One with endowment wealth from the very beginning; (3) One with founder’s and endowment wealth. In time, this wealth usually increases through benefactor donation or government grants. In terms of activities, there are two types of foundation covered in this paper, one with humanitarian activities such as in education, and one with religious activities, such as in mosque management. In terms of land, one foundation (Pondok Pesantren al-Ansor Foundation) has both founder’s land and endowment land. The founder initially endowed the pesantren with 1 ha of land, which later grew to become 8 ha. Another foundation, the Pesantren Dar al-Ma'arif Education Foundation, was initially endowed with 6 ha of land, 3 ha as pesantren location and 3 ha as oil palm plantation to fund the foundation operational activities. The other foundation, the Masjid Agung Foundation, has land endowed by the Pangdam Bukit Barisan. The mosque infrastructure was later built from benefactors’ donation and local government grant. In general, the founders mentioned above are not well-versed in both foundation and endowment laws. They do not understand that the founders or anyone related or affiliated with the founders cannot receive a salary directly or indirectly from their foundation. Their motivation to create a foundation was initially to obtain government grants to develop their pesantrens. In addition, all the above foundations were founded before the Foundation Law 2001 and 2004 were in effect. As such, practices which may have been legal before these laws were in effect may no longer be so.Footnote 27 It can thus be concluded that there is a gap between a foundation’s ideal and it’s practice. Even the heads of the foundations interviewed in this paper admitted that they did not realize the implication of having their institution under the foundation legal structure. The idealistic foundation legal structure, in which the founder and his or her relatives cannot receive a salary from the foundation, as compared to the more practical endowment legal structure, in which 10 % of the endowment return can be used as salary by the endowment management, should actually make setting up a foundation to be a difficult endeavor. As such, a notary should not accept requests to set up foundation legal structure so easily.Footnote 28 This problem is compounded by the fact that it is well known that many people have used the foundation legal structure for commercial purpose and tax avoidance, without receiving any sanction from the law enforcement.Footnote 29 As such, it needs to be emphasized a foundation should be administered according to the prevailing law. There needs to be a verification process on the worthiness of an individual or a group to set up a foundation, as well as sanctions when they prove to violate the Foundation Law. Only then the law can be said to have performed its functions: social anticipation, social control, and social engineering.Footnote 30 The divergence of ideal and practice in foundations have been a very common occurrence in Indonesia. One solution perhaps can be in the revision of the Foundation Law to allow the founder and his or her family working in the foundation to receive a salary. This paper has shown that some founders’ relatives acted as if their foundation’s wealth is their personal wealth, be it as part of inheritance or because of their management duty. There have also been many conflicts in Indonesia regarding the distribution of many foundations’ wealth, which in many cases are against the foundation laws.Footnote 31 The legal revision of Foundation Law is more appropriate than letting the gap between its ideal and practice to continue. In this context, it can be seen that the use of endowment management is more appropriate as the management can work and manage the endowment professionally with adequate salary. An institution which has endowment wealth should use Endowment Management Body legal structure instead of the foundation legal structure. So, the recommendation of the North Sumatra BWI to change the Masjid Agung management from foundation to BKW should be followed by other related Islamic institutions discussed in this paper. The Islamic tradition of endowment has long been practiced in the archipelago and has even been institutionalized in the Endowment Law 2004 and Government Regulation 2006. The Western tradition of foundation has also been institutionalized in Indonesia in the Civil Code (KUHPer—Kitab Undang-undang Hukum Perdata),Footnote 32 and Foundation Law 2001 and 2004. Based on the findings of this research, it is recommended that religious, social, or humanitarian institutions founded by Muslims should be managed under the Endowment Management Body legal structure, instead of the foundation legal structure. The foundation legal structure is often misused to avoid tax and enrich its founders, among other violations. The prohibition of salary to members of the Governing, Executive, and Supervisory Board who have worked hard to manage the foundation create many ‘moral hazards’ problems. As elaborated above, it can be seen that Islamic institution founders and religious figures, such as ulama or pesantren heads, who use the foundation legal structure may always violate the foundation law as long as they continue to make a living from the foundation. Viewed from this perspective, the legal structure of endowment is more rational, as the endowment managers can receive a professional salary from the endowment returns. No matter the type of endowment, general or specific, for eternity or with time-limit,Footnote 33 provision of professional salary has been accommodated legally in Laws and Government Regulations of Indonesia.Footnote 34 In Indonesian, the law is titled Undang-undang No. 41 Tahun 2004 tentang Wakaf. See Endowment Law 2004, Chapter 1, Article 1, Clause 2: An endower (wakif) is a person who surrenders his or her wealth as endowment (wakaf); Clause 3: Endowment Pledge (Ikrar Wakaf) is an endower’s statement in oral and/or written form to the endowment manager (nazhir wakaf) stating the surrender of his or her wealth as endowment; Clause 4: Nazhir is a person who accepts endowment wealth (harta benda) from the endower to be managed and developed accordingly. In Indonesian, the law is titled Undang-undang No. 16 Tahun 2001 tentang Yayasan. In Indonesian, the law is titled Undang-undang No. 28 Tahun 2004 tentang Yayasan. See Foundation Law 2001, Chapter 1, Article 1, Clause 1: A foundation is a legal body which manage wealth independently to achieve certain purposes in social, religious and humanitarian fields. See Foundation Law 2004, Chapter 1, Article 5, Clause 1: A foundation’s wealth, be it in money, commodity, or other forms, is prohibited to be transferred or distributed directly or indirectly, be it in salary, fee, stipend, or other forms with monetary values, to the Governing, Executive, and Supervisory Board Members. This phenomenon has been succinctly summed up by legal experts as ‘legal pluralism’. See John R. Bowen, Islam, Law, and Equality in Indonesia, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003, pp 3–4. For more on legal pluralism, see Lawrence M. Friedman, Law and Society: An Introduction, New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 1977, p. 71. See Michael Dumper, Wakaf Muslim di negara Yahudi, Jakarta: Lentera, 1999, p. 2. This book is a translation of Professor Dumper’s original English book, Islam and Israel: Muslim religious endowments and the Jewish state, Washington DC: Institute for Palestine Studies, 1994. See Endowment Law 2004, Chapter 1, Article 1, Clause 1: Wakaf is the legal action of a wakif to separate and/or surrender parts of his or her wealth to be used indefinitely or in a duration of time according to the purpose of worship and/or welfare according to the sharia (Islamic law). See Foundation Law 2004, Article 68. See Endowment Law 2004, Article 44. In Indonesian, the regulation is titled Peraturan Pemerintah Republik Indonesia Nomor 63 Tahun 2008 tentang Pelaksanaan Undang-Undang Tentang Yayasan. William M. Evan, The Sociology of Law, New York: Free Press, 1980, pp. 12–13. Interview with KH. Sahdi Ahmad Lubis on 20 June 2015. Article 5 of Foundation Law 2004. Interview with Syahrul Anwar, Treasurer of the foundation in April 2015. In fiqh terms, this land sale is also against most ulama’s fatwa. See Muhammad Abid Abdullah Al-Kabisi, Hukum Wakaf: Kajian Kontemporer Pertama dan Terlengkap tentang Fungsi dan Pengelolaan Wakaf serta Penyelesaian atas Sengketa Wakaf (tr.), Jakarta: IIMaN, 2003, pp. 349–350. This book is a translation of al-Kabisi’s original Arabic book, Ahkam al-Waqf fi Al-Syari’ah Al-Islamiyah. Interview with Abdul Hakim, Secretary of the foundation in May 2013. Information from Syahrul Anwar. Interview with Mahmudin, sibling of the Secretary, May 2015. Information from Prof. Dr. H. Hasan Bakti Nasution, MA., Secretary of the MUI North Sumatra. Kodam in Indonesian is an abbreviation for Komando Daerah Militer (Regional Military Command), while panglima means army commander. Hence, Panglima Kodam or Pangdam means Commander of the Regional Military Command. Bukit Barisan is one of the 14 military command regions of the Indonesian army, named after the hilly mountainous area of North Sumatra. Interview with Hasan Maksum, Secretary of MUI Medan, 21 June 2015. See, Editorial, “BKM Kembalikan Masjid Agung untuk Umat” in Waspada Daily, Sunday, 16 August 2015, p. 1 and A2, col. 1. Information from Prof. Dr. H. Muhammad Yasir Nasution, Head of Badan Wakaf Indonesia (BWI) North Sumatra, April 2015. The root of the foundation legal structure is dubious. Soeharto set up the Super Semar foundation by force. It has only two members, including him. Soeharto started by gathering 18 university rectors and demanding that they provide 100 names as scholarship recipients. This foundation, which was founded in 1974, was recently fined more than 4 trillion rupiah, payable to the state, because of its loss in court. The Office of the Attorney General (Kejaksaan Agung) sued the Foundation as it misuse scholarship money from state banks by transferring it to companies owned by Suharto’s cronies. The Supreme Court (Mahkamah Agung) obligated the foundation to pay the fine in August 2015. See, “Akal Super Semar” in Tempo Magazine, 24–30 August 2015 edition, p. 12. See also, “Beasiswa Amal Super Semar”, in Tempo Magazine, 17 August 1974 edition. Not a few notaries recommend their clients to use the foundation instead of the association legal structure. The former is deemed to be more legally enforceable, even though the latter has actually been regulated formally, as can be found in “stb 1870-64 on Legal Association” [in Indonesian, Staatsblad 1870 No. 64 tentang Perkumpulan-perkumpulan Berbadan Hukum (Rechtspersoonlijkheid van Vereenigingen)]. Compare with Ibrahim Assegaf and Eryanto Nugroho (2003: 37). See Danang Widoyoko (2003: 22–23), “UU Yayasan: Legalisasi Bisnis Militer?” in Jentera: Jurnal Hukum, Jakarta, Pusat Studi Hukum & Kebijakan Indonesia, 2nd Edition. KH. Sa’di Ahmad, a founder of Islamic education foundation stated that there have been no precedent of legal cases problematizing the foundation Governing, Executive, and Supervisory members from receiving a salary as compensation for the foundation management. To understand this issue comprehensively, the politics of the Foundation Law needs to be understood. First, there have been many societal and legal demands to prosecute foundation violations in the form of misuse of foundation legal structure for commercial purposes or money laundering. Some prominent cases included foundations founded by Soeharto, as well as foundations founded by the military and other state institutions as a tool for non-budgetary fund-raising. Second, the statement of the Government of Indonesia in the International Monetary Fund’s Letter of Intent to fulfill the latter’s loan requirement. The government has admitted that much state funding came in the form of foundation activities. As the funds were outside the State Budget (Anggaran Pembangunan dan Biaya Negara—APBN), in what was usually called non-budgetary fund, their origin and use escaped the scrutiny of Financial Audit Agency (Badan Pemeriksa Keuangan—BPK). This is ironic because the intent of the Foundation Law creation was initially to allow BPK to examine and audit foundations. Instead, when it was passed, the Law only demanded foundations to be audited by Public Accountant (Article 52 Clause 3 of Foundation Law 2001). As such, the Law negated BPK’s authority to audit foundations in Indonesia. See Ibrahim Assegaf and Eryanto Nugroho (2003: 36). Before the issuance of Law No. 16 Year 2001, foundation was regulated by Articles 365, 900, 1680 of the Civil Code (KUHPerdata, pasal 365, 900, 1680), which originated from the Netherlands. In Article 1 (1) of the Endowment Law 2004, it is stated that an endowment is a legal act of the endower to separate and/or surrender parts of his or her wealth to be used in perpetuity or for a certain amount of time in accordance with its purpose of religious worship and/or public welfare according to the sharia. See Jaih Mubarok, Wakaf Produktif, Bandung: Simbiosa Rekatama Media, 2008a, b, pp. 74–75. Government Regulation Number 42 Year 2006 in Articles 30 (4), (5), and (6) stipulated that the endower’s will can be in the form of khairi (general) or specific (ahli) endowment. The latter is meant for the welfare of the endower’s blood relatives (nasab). In the case that all the relatives has passed away, the endowment status changes to khairi which purpose is set by the relevant minister based on the recommendation of the Indonesia Endowment Agency (Badan Wakaf Indonesia—BWI). Akta Ikrar Wakaf (Endowment Pledge Deed) Anggaran Pembangunan dan Biaya Negara (State Budget) Badan Kemakmuran Masjid (Mosque Management Body) Badan Kenazhiran Wakaf (Endowment Management Body) Badan Pemeriksa Keuangan (Financial Audit Agency) Badan Wakaf Indonesia (Indonesian Endowment Agency) Komando Daerah Militer (Regional Military Command) Kitab Undang-undang Hukum Perdata (Civil Code) Majelis Ulama Indonesia (Indonesian Ulama Council) Organisasi kemasyarakatan (mass-organization) Panglima Kodam (Commander of the Regional Military Command) Sumbangan Pembinaan Pendidikan (Student Fees) Sekolah Tinggi Agama Islam Tapanuli Selatan (South Tapanuli Higher Institute of Islamic Studies) Ali Z (2006) Sosiologi Hukum. Jakarta, Sinar Grafika Al-Kabisi MAA (2003) Hukum Wakaf: Kajian Kontemporer Pertama dan Terlengkap tentang Fungsi dan Pengelolaan Wakaf serta Penyelesaian atas Sengketa Wakaf (tr.). Jakarta, IIMaN Assegaf I, Nugroho E (2003) Tafsir Sempit Akuntabilitas dan Sisi Bisnis Yayasan. Jentera: Jurnal Hukum Jakarta, Pusat Studi Hukum & Kebijakan Indonesia, 2nd edn Bowen JR (2003) Islam, law, and equality in Indonesia. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge Dumper M (1999) Wakaf Muslim di negara Yahudi (tr.). Jakarta, Lentera Editorial (1974) Beasiswa Amal Super Semar. Tempo Magazine. Edition 17 August 1974 Editorial (2015) Akal Super Semar. Tempo Magazine. Edition 24–30 August 2015 Editorial (2015) BKM Kembalikan Masjid Agung untuk Umat. Harian Umum Nasional Waspada, published on 16 August 2015 Evan WM (1980) The sociology of law. Free Press, New York Friedman LM (1977) Law and society: an introduction. Prentice Hall, New Jersey Jaih M (2008a) Wakaf Produktif. Bandung, Simbiosa Rekatama Media Jaih M (2008b) Wakaf Produktif. Bandung, Simbiosa Rekatama Media Lubis NAF (2000) A history of Islamic law in Indonesia. IAIN Press, Medan Widoyoko D (2003) UU Yayasan: Legalisasi Bisnis Militer? Jentera: Jurnal Hukum. Jakarta, Pusat Studi Hukum & Kebijakan Indonesia, 2nd edn Laws and regulations KUHPerdata, pasal 365, 900, 1680 (Civil Code, article 365, 900, 1680) Undang-undang No. 41 Tahun 2004 tentang Wakaf (Law No. 41 Year 2001 on Endowment) Undang-undang No. 16 Tahun 2001 tentang Yayasan (Law No. 16 Year 2001 on Foundation) Undang-undang No. 28 Tahun 2004 tentang Yayasan (Law No. 28 Year 2004 on Foundation) Peraturan Pemerintah No. 42 Tahun 2006 tentang Pelaksanaan Undang-Undang No. 41 Tahun 2004 Tentang Wakaf (Government Regulation No. 42 on the Implementation of Law No. 41 Year 2004 on Endowment) Peraturan Pemerintah Republik Indonesia Nomor 63 Tahun 2008 tentang Pelaksanaan Undang-Undang Tentang Yayasan (Government Regulation No. 63 Year 2008 on the Implementation of Law on Foundation) Staatsblad 1870 No. 64 tentang Perkumpulan-perkumpulan Berbadan Hukum (State Document No. 64 on Legal Associations) List of interviews Interview with Hasan Bakti Nasution Interview with from Muhammad Yasir Nasution Information with from Syahrul Anwar Interview with Abdul Hakim Interview with Hasan Maksum Interview with Sahdi Ahmad Lubis Interview with Mahmudin Although several informants are relatives of the author, they have no influence over any decisions concerning the paper. The author thanks Surya Dalimunthe, who has provided professional writing services for the completion of this paper. Much gratitude also goes to the research informants, the most important ones in no particular order, Muhammad Yasir Nasution, Hasan Bakti Nasution, Hasan Maksum, Sahdi Ahmad Lubis, Abdul Hakim, Syahrul Anwar, Mahmudin, and Rajuddin. About this article Cite this article Siregar, I. Indonesian Islamic institutions between the foundation and endowment laws: a critical legal analysis. SpringerPlus 5, 1213 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1186/s40064-016-2772-6 - Indonesian law - Islamic law - Islamic institution - Endowment (waqf) - Foundation (yayasan) - Critical legal analysis

Tuesday, November 18, 2008 The Day they Called me a Homophobe Golly. I've been called a lot of names in my life. From Mr Faggot and Mr Poof for my gay gorgeousness, to Mr Telephone Pole for the size of my....um....intellect. But I think I can honestly say....cross my heart....I've NEVER been called an intolerant homophobe. And I'm speechless. I can't help but feel I'm not WORTHY. So I think I'll leave the good Dr Dawg to deal with Small Dead Chihuahuas. While I deal with Diogenes. By sending him a little note...in a discreet brown paper envelope. With love from one gay guy to another... I was sorry to hear that you took offence at my mild criticism of Uncle Fred's new cabaret Gay Dominion. And of course even sorrier to note that you've been used like a tool by the bigots at the Chihuahua Factory. And I just want to say that if I had known it was you who came up with that awful name, I wouldn't have slagged it. Just suggested something better like La Con Aux Folles. However, brother, I do think you exaggerate a bit when you say this: What happens when gays have the audacity to announce that they support the Conservative Party of Canada? They get compared to black klansmen and Jewish Nazis, called "Uncle Toms" or compared to black minstrels tap-dancing for "massa". They are subjected to the most outrageous, condescending and offensive smears I can imagine. I have never encountered from Conservatives who know I am gay the animosity and vitriol directed at me by gays who find out I'm a Conservative. I mean PUH- LEAZE. Who do you think you are? St Sebastian of the Con Closet Queens? At least he's HOT....I mean he WAS. But seriously Dio what really annoys me is not that you're a Conservative Party supporter. What really pisses me off is that you and the others like you spend all your time attacking the gay movement. And always seem to be apologizing about being gay. But still I could NEVER hate you like those homophobic Cons do. Your so-called friends. Oh sure they LOVE it when you attack us. But they laugh at you behind your back, and hate you just as much as they HATE the rest of us. You can pretend otherwise, or hide behind your ridiculous slogan: "Each individual should allow reason to guide his conduct, or like an animal, he will need to be lead by a leash." But the fact is you're the one on the leash. These homophobes are just using you Dio. Like Kate just did. Taking you WALKIES. While you wag your tail, and beg them to love you...or give you a treat. So please let's not play the martyr anymore. I'm sorry to say you're just a gay stooge. So if you didn't like that video of what you call those "happy tap dancing negroes." At the Gay Dominion Cabaret. How about this one? Mammy. Mammy. Massa. Massa. I'm just a poor gay Con. I'd walk a million miles for one of your smiles....and a pat on the head. Now gimme a watermelon !!!!!!!! Enjoy it. And don't forget to spit out the seeds. Eh? Which only leaves me with something to say to Krazy Kate at Small Dead Chihuahuas. Which is a real problem. Because I don't speak her language. But luckily he does.... So there. Take THAT. Oh boy. Isn't it great to be gay, lefty, and FREE? Woof. Woof. The bigots can call me a homophobe, And bombard me with ugly messages. But I don't give a shit. Because with opponents like that. And their gay stooges. How can we possibly LOSE?

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The Jewish Learning Venture has received a Covenant Foundation grant to set up a national network intended to share innovative practices in supplementary Jewish education — otherwise known as Hebrew school. The Melrose Park-based agency will receive $45,000 for the first year — and an additional $100,000 over two years, if the grant is renewed — to administer Shinui: The National Jewish Education Innovation Network. Rabbi Philip Warmflash, the group’s executive director, said, “What we have learned is that it is possible to create a national structure without creating a national organization. This may be the way to look at national organizations in the 21st century.” While the group will be administering the network, it will actually be a joint project among Jewish agencies in seven cities including New York, Washington, D.C., and San Francisco. The idea is to create a national, person-to-person network where educators can share ideas about what works and what doesn’t in supplemental Jewish education and to organize a series of regional and national conferences related to the topic.

(page 5 of 5) What a cultured man, thought Udi, what a model Jewish community. Here was an alternative to the Judaism of power and conquest, proof that the Jews didn’t need a state to be safe. In the villa on the edge of Damascus, Kawaji presented Udi with an empty notebook and instructed: Write about your life, especially your military service. “What’s interesting about my military service?” asked Udi. “I was a corporal, I don’t know any secrets.” Kawaji insisted. Udi relented. What could he reveal that wasn’t available in any Israeli newspaper? He wrote about basic training in the Nahal base near Kibbutz Gan Shmuel, about parachute drops in Tel Nof, about the antiquated Belgian FN rifle on which he’d learned to shoot. Write the location of air force bases, Kawaji instructed. Udi complied. Who doesn’t know that Tel Nof is near Givat Brenner? Kawaji requested an assessment of Motta Gur. A warmonger, wrote Udi. As Udi filled the notebook, he might have thought about Uri Ilan, the other member of Gan Shmuel to reach Damascus, who committed suicide rather than betray military secrets under torture. Yet as Udi wrote in the notebook, he didn’t think of Uri Ilan. Not as reproach, not even as irony. He simply forgot about him. Udi was driven to an army camp in the mountains. He was given a Kalashnikov and taken to a firing range. What was this childish game? Wondered Udi. As if he didn’t know how to shoot. Still, there was something charming about training in the hills. Just like Che Guevara. The only time he balked was when Kawaji asked him to photograph Israeli military installations. To attack installations was a legitimate act; to photograph them was an act of espionage. “I’m a revolutionary,” said Udi, “not a spy.”

How do you keep up with the news of the Jewish world? Sometimes it can seem as if “the Jewish world” consists of my own little Jewish community plus whatever is in the news about Israel. In the summer of 2014, if you believed the television, the only things going on anywhere were war in Gaza and a terrifying rise in anti-Semitism in Europe. Granted, it was not a happy summer for Jews, but if you were tuned in to Jewish news sources, you (1) had a more complete picture of the bad things and (2) knew what other things were happening with Jews globally. My favorite Jewish news source is JTA.org. The long form of its name will give you a clue how long it has been serving the community: Jewish Telegraphic Agency. One of the things I love about the JTA is the depth of its archive: they will give you the current story, then background on the issue. For instance, today there is an article about the history of tension around the Temple Mount. Less savvy news services might give you the idea that trouble at the Temple Mount is a current development, but the JTA article gives you the background. Sometimes stories read a little differently when you know the history. You can sign up for daily news from the service. Sometimes I only have time to skim that email, but it gives me the headlines for the Jewish world. I know that JTA.org is not the only source for Jewish news: do you have a favorite? Tell us about it in the comments! • Synagogues run on membership subscriptions because that allows for predictable cash flow and budgeting. Every synagogue has its own formula for setting dues. • Costs vary by the cost of living in an area, by the size of the staff (salaries are usually the biggest single budget item) and by the services offered. A small synagogue that rents a room in a local strip mall one day a week and has no rabbi can operate very cheaply, and it will have low dues. It may be a wonderful Jewish community, but it will not be able to offer many things that people want from a synagogue. • IMPORTANT: Most synagogues offer “dues relief” when needed. If you want to join a synagogue with dues of $2000 a year, and you can’t afford it, say so! Please do not assume that you are not wanted, or that it is a synagogue only for “rich people.” Explain that you want to belong to the synagogue, but that that amount will not fit into your budget. They will usually have a way to meet you at a level you can afford. • Sometimes people ask why they should pay for services they don’t personally use. For instance, why should I pay the full membership rate when I don’t have children in religious school? Educating the children of our community about Torah is a basic Jewish value, and it is the responsibility not just of the parents, but of the whole community. If you think the synagogue is spending your dues on something foolish or unfair, talk with a member of the board and learn about who uses that program and why it is a priority. If you still think it foolish, you can talk to more board members about examining those priorities. • They call it a “membership” because you become a member. Once you join, at whatever dues level, you are not merely a consumer. Look for ways to keep expenses low by being a good member: cleaning up your messes, helping with set up and clean up, serving on committees, volunteering, and participating in events like congregational meetings and fundraising. I have a bias on this subject: I don’t work for one, but I’ve been a member of a synagogue for twenty years. When there’s trouble, I call the rabbis; when I have good news, I share it with friends there. My beloved and I were married there. It is my Jewish family, my first and primary tie to the larger Jewish world. Don’t let sticker shock drive you away! There are ways to make it work. Synagogue membership is one of the great bargains around. There are three days of the year when synagogues are weird. Services are not typical. The crowd attending the synagogue is not typical. Even the clergy may not be their usual selves. In other words, those are bad days to “shul-shop,” to visit a prospective synagogue. Here they are: Purim is fun, if you are a member of the community. But it is an evening when people wear masks, get rowdy, and may be a little tipsy. There may be a play, a “Purim Shpiel,” with lots of inside jokes that won’t make any sense to you. In the daytime, there will be a children’s carnival, with hordes of sugar-crazed little ones. Don’t visit for the first time on Purim – it could be the nicest shul in the world but you will want to flee screaming. 2. Rosh HaShanah Rosh HaShanah (Jewish New Year) services are beautiful. However, they are also very long.The rabbi’s sermon will be longer, too. Like a church at Easter, every member is there and more dressed up than usual. The service, and the music, are different from regular services. Tickets are usually required. Don’t visit for the first time on Rosh HaShanah – it may be pretty, but it just isn’t typical. and now, for the VERY WORST DAY TO VISIT A SYNAGOGUE: 1. Yom Kippur Yom Kippur is the worst possible day to visit a new synagogue. Nothing is normal. The evening service, Kol Nidre, is much like Rosh HaShanah: everyone dressed up, solemn music, lengthy sermon, a huge crowd. And in the morning service, it is all that but even more so: no one has had any coffee. If you are already part of the community, then misery has company. We do the work of the day (praying), we kvetch about our caffeine headaches, services go on and on and on. The music is still beautiful. But it is no place or time to take the temperature of a synagogue, because the singers are hired, the clergy is tired, and no one has had any coffee. When is a good time to shop for a shul? Any day but those three days! That said, many people these days don’t find rabbis through the synagogue. Moreover, there is nothing preventing a person from putting “Rabbi” in front of their name and simply setting up a website and some business cards. While there are laws against practicing medicine or law without a license, pretty much anyone can go online and get “ordained” for a fee. There’s also nothing preventing someone from setting up an online “rabbinical school” that requires little of their students. You may be wondering, why does this matter? If you are looking for someone to stand up front for a ceremony and read a service, maybe it doesn’t matter. But maybe then you’re just as well off asking a cousin or a friend – why worry about the title “rabbi” at all? If on the other hand, you want a real rabbi: someone qualified to do premarital counseling, or someone who can be a resource in making Jewish choices, or someone to guide you through a conversion process, then perhaps you will want to choose more carefully. Particularly where conversion is concerned, the rabbi’s credentials will determine not only how and where you are accepted as a Jew, but how your descendants will be accepted. An ethical rabbi will be honest with you about exactly what conversion with them will mean to other Jews, and they will not charge money for the conversion. So what is a layperson to do, especially one who is new to the Jewish community? Three things will tell you a lot about any rabbi: ask about their Education, Affiliation, and Experience. Education. Where did this rabbi study? How many years of study were required? For comparison, I can tell you that Hebrew Union College (the Reform rabbinical school) as well as the Jewish Theological Seminary and the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies in Los Angeles (both Conservative rabbinical schools) require five years or more of graduate study (meaning, incoming students already have a B.A.). All three require students to live for a year in Israel, studying texts and immersed in the Hebrew language. Their coursework includes not only Jewish text learning, but training in counseling, education, and professional ethics. The Orthodox world has a lot more variety, as does the nondenominational Jewish world, but the same question applies: how many years did you study before you got the title, Rabbi? Were you ordained by a single individual, or by a faculty of learned Jews? This relates to more than just academics. What was this person willing to invest in becoming a rabbi? How many years, how much inconvenience? It is not only a question of money (although trust me, five years of grad school is expensive) but also a question about dedication to the Jewish People. Affiliation.To what professional organizations does this rabbi belong? The reason you ask this question is that a rabbi who belongs to the Central Conference of American Rabbis (Reform) or the Rabbinical Assembly (Conservative) or the Rabbinical Council of America (Orthodox) has agreed to maintain certain ethical standards, and is answerable to the association if there are questions about his or her behavior. You can ask if they are members of their local Board of Rabbis, or other professional organizations. The idea is, how connected is this rabbi to colleagues? To whom, if anyone, is this person answerable? Rabbis who are connected to other rabbis also can tap a deep well of resources for you. As a CCAR member, I can ask a quick question by leaving a message online for other rabbis to chime in. If I am concerned about how best to handle a tricky situation, I can pick up the phone and call a mentor or a more experienced senior rabbi. I participate in continuing education, and my colleagues challenge me to do my best. Experience. Have they ever served in a congregation? Been a Jewish chaplain? Lived in Israel? Worked with Jewish youth? Done prison chaplaincy? Served the Jewish community overseas? Of course, not every rabbi has done all those things, but by asking you will get a better idea of who this person is, and what depth of experience they will bring to you. A rabbi who has solid credentials and experience will be glad to answer these questions and proud of the answers. Be wary of anyone who seems to want you to feel bad about asking. No rabbi is perfect. No rabbi is knowledgeable about everything, and perfectly trained in every respect. We’re fallible human beings. But asking about Education, Affiliation, and Experience can give you a better idea of who this rabbi is than you can get from a nice website or a well written marketing blurb. I have to be honest about my bias on this topic. One of the fixed items in our household budget is synagogue membership. Our children are grown. We don’t need religious school. No one is studying for a bar mitzvah. But to borrow a phrase from Moses – excuse me, Charlton Heston! – I’ll let go of my synagogue membership when they take it out of my cold, dead hands. Why is synagogue membership important to me? Let me count the pros: 1. I have a rabbi (actually, two rabbis) on call should we need them. I like knowing that if I have a big decision to make, there’s someone grounded in the tradition with whom I can talk it through. I like knowing that if something bad happens, all members of my family will be free to call on the rabbi for support and guidance. I don’t want to be looking for a rabbi at a crisis in my life. 2. I have a community. I don’t love everything about that community, or everyone in that community, but it is my community, people who know who I am and with whom I navigate life. If I am looking for a plumber, or a doctor, or a real estate agent, everyone has a recommendation. If I have something to celebrate, they will care. If something bad happens, they’ll care. I am not anonymous there. 3. I benefit from the Caring Community, or Committee, or whatever it is we’re calling it now. When my kids were still in school, and I fell and smashed my knee, someone picked up my kids from the bus, someone brought dinner, and someone was on the other end of the phone to help me figure out how I was going to deal with life while my leg was immobilized. As an aging woman with some disabilities, this is not a small thing. 4. I have somewhere to develop and use my talents as a volunteer. This goes for small stuff, like bringing food to potlucks, and to larger things as well. Currently I don’t work for a congregation, but I volunteer some of my professional skills for my congregation. If I had the time, I could sing in the choir (I wish I had the time.) I get appreciation for the things I do from time to time, and that’s nice too. I also learn about social justice action opportunities, and have a ready-made group of people with whom to pursue those. 5. I have a minyan with whom to pray. Jews engage in private prayer, but there are some kinds of prayer for which we need a minyan of at least ten Jewish adults. 6. I have people with whom to learn. There is no substitute for a community when doing Jewish learning: it just does not work alone. And even though I went to rabbinical school, I still have lots to learn: learning is a lifelong activity for a Jew. 7. When there is truly a crisis, I have a community and a rabbi. Much of my work is with unaffiliated Jews, and I have to tell you that that more than anything has convinced me of the benefits of belonging. I do my best for families who are grieving, but they’ve turned to me because someone gave them my name after disaster struck. I’m essentially a nice stranger with a set of skills they need. How much better it would be for them to have a rabbi they know, that they can call the minute trouble looms, and who already knows their story? That is what I want for myself and my family. 8. I know that by supporting this synagogue, I am contributing to the future of Judaism in my area. Even after my kids are grown, children will be learning about Judaism at that synagogue. Couples will get married. Funerals will be held. Celebrations will happen, holidays and fasts will be observed. By being a part of a synagogue, I keep Judaism going. Now for the “cons” of synagogue membership: 1. Yes, it costs money. Having that rabbi on call, and a secretary and whatever else (a building, a janitor, teachers, etc) costs a lot of money. If money is tight, then you have two options: talk with the synagogue about reduced rates, or opt not to belong for now. 2. As I said above, not everyone at my congregation is my best friend. Sometimes there is conflict. There are some people who drive me a little nuts. I probably drive them a little nuts, too. Comes with the territory. As the old joke goes, sometimes it is easier to love Judaism than it is to love real live Jews. 3. Yes, they bug me to give and to do stuff. Linda and I get periodic appeals for financial and volunteer participation. I also feel free to say “no” when I really can’t or don’t want to do something. 4. I don’t agree with the way everything is done by the synagogue. Policy is up to the board, and they call those shots. I get to state my opinion, but I am not the boss. If it’s the only synagogue in town and the disagreement is about something serious, then maybe it isn’t worth it. For example, I am not sure I could be a happy member of a congregation that wanted me to be closeted, or that did not count women for a minyan. 5. Paying dues is just the beginning. To really get the benefits of synagogue membership, you have to invest time and heart. Synagogue membership is not cheap. It costs money, time, and heart. Sometimes it is aggravating. But for me, it’s worth it. If you are Jewish and not a member of a congregation it can be difficult to navigate milestones in Jewish life. I’m starting a new category of blog entry for such occasions, and I am going to make at least one post weekly on “Jewish Consumer” topics. I will confess right up front to some mixed feelings about this. It seems very odd and borderline inappropriate to talk about “consumerism” and Judaism, but I am asked often enough about these matters that I think it is worth doing. I have a rather strong bias, and I’m going to deal with it in my first post, “Choosing Synagogue Membership.”

Encana Oil and Gas (USA) Inc. gives $25,000 to Environmental Lung Center MAY 15, 2010 Denver, CO — National Jewish Health recently announced a $25,000 gift from Encana Oil and Gas (USA) Inc. to support research at its Environmental Lung Center. Encana, with nearly 900 employees working in downtown Denver, is a leading North American natural gas producer. Denver is the U.S. division headquarters; its corporate offices are in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. The National Jewish Health Environmental Lung Center conducts research on air pollutants and on the impact of air pollution on vulnerable populations, including pre-adolescent children, elderly persons, and people with asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Many people with chronic lung diseases, including asthma, bronchitis and emphysema, experience worse symptoms when exposed to air pollution. Encana funding will support National Jewish Health research to determine the impacts of air pollution on people with chronic lung diseases, the mechanisms of lung injury caused by air pollutants and appropriate treatments based upon individuals' genetic make-up. "We're grateful to Encana for its support of this important line of study," said Robert Mason, MD, Director of the Environmental Lung Center at National Jewish Health. "This funding will help us better understand on a cellular level exactly how pollutants can injure cells in the lung. That knowledge, in turn, could lead to therapies to treat and possibly prevent lung disease caused by air pollution." "Encana is proud to support the work at the Environmental Lung Center at National Jewish Health," said Doug Hock of Encana. "Our employees realize the importance of maintaining good air quality through strong environmental stewardship. This grant is just one more way we can help to ensure that everyone in our community breathes easier." National Jewish Health is known worldwide for treatment of patients with respiratory, cardiac, immune and related disorders, and for groundbreaking medical research. Founded in 1899 as a nonprofit hospital, National Jewish Health remains the only facility in the world dedicated exclusively to these disorders. Since 1998, U.S. News & World Report has ranked National Jewish Health the #1 respiratory hospital in the nation.

י"ד לחודש החמישי תשע"ד Founded by Soccer Dad, Haveil Havalim is a carnival of Jewish blogs -- a weekly collection of Jewish and Israeli blog highlights, tidbits and points of interest collected from blogs all around the world. It's hosted by different bloggers each week, jointly coordinated through our Facebook Group.The term 'Haveil Havalim,' which means"Vanity of Vanities," is from Qoheleth, (Ecclesiastes) which was written by King Solomon. King Solomon built the Holy Temple in Jerusalem and later on got all bogged down in materialism and other 'excesses' and realized that it was nothing but 'hevel,' or in English,'vanity.' Submissions may be may through our on-line submission form on BlogCarnival.com, which requires you to log-in first. First order of business... We still need a host for next week's edition. Please join our Facebook group to find out more about how you can participate, including host. It's not that hard,...really! Daniel Pinner comments on Tisha be'Av 5774, and then writes on Parashat Vaet'chanan/Shabbat Nachamu: The impure well-springs of redemption. Yeranen Yaakov posts on 1946 Years Since The Hurban. Rafi, The Jewish Libertarian presents an interesting piece on Halachic Proof that Circumcision is a Violation of the Non Aggression Principle. Tomer Devorah posts on the abductions of soldiers, and the Israeli Government's reactions to them in Putting the Myth to Rest. She also fills us in on what has been going on behind the scenes in Gaza Psy-Ops. and warns of the Invitation to an Intervention. A Soldier's Mother asks How Long Till the Next Time? I ask about This Summer's War in Gaza: What Did It Accomplish? This post was rejected from the Times Of Israel, on the basis that it disseminates hatred toward a particular group of people. I then ask anti-Israel activists What is Israel Supposed to do? Roll Over and Die? Yoel Meltzer asks us to ponder some Food For Thought: Rockets From Gaza. Ben-Tzion is Bursting With Pride. Whereas Ariel at The Torah Revolution believes that IDF Soldiers In Essence Are Required To Renounce Their Judaism in Order to Be Soldiers! Additional Current Events Mrs. S. at Our Shiputzim brings us Counteracting The Meraglim VI. Yoel Meltzer brings us a summary of the Temple Mount Event he organized, together with the Tel-Aviv International Salon. The event featured MK's Moshe Feiglin (Likud) and Ruth Calderon (Yesh Atid). Hey! Anyone Want to go on a Tractor Ride with an Arab? Life In Israel Ester at It's All From HaShem recounts for us An Early Morning Phone Call,...and much more. Ricki's Mom at Beneath The Wings tells us about A Yelp and a Scream. Batya at Me-Ander brings us photos in Family Time Touring, Yes, Suitable for the 9 Days. Rivka Ester at The Adventure of Being (Just) Me shares her personal story and connection to Israel in The Story Behind the Picture. Here is an amazing story, reported on by Rafi at Life In Israel, A Crook with a Heart. The Jewish Fist lists The Top Ten Signs that You are an Orthodox Jewish Feminist, part 2. Personally, I do not happen to believe that there are any such things as Orthodox Jewish Feminists, but whatever! And finally,...Israel Brews and Views reports on Hindi -- Malka's New IPA. What's an IPA? Yanir Dekel at Times Of Israel seems to have an answer to Rafi's befuddlement. He reports on the Gay Jewish, "adult film" star Traveling To Stand with Israel. I'll bet this is a first for Haveil Havalim! Rafi at Life In Israel writes Sometimes I Just Don't Get It. He is talking about Queers Against Israeli Apartheid. Rafi, there you go again! Making too much sense! Donny Fuchs writes about Barack "Hussein" Obama: Enemy of G-d. This appears to be the post which got Donny banned from the Times Of Israel! Can't you wait to read it?! Batya at Shiloh Musings writes that America is Becoming a Danger for Jews. 47th Street isn't the USA. Batya then asks and answers some Dumb Questions: 1- Americans Killing Innocent Civilian Iraqis? 2- Anti-Democratic to Ban Hamas in Gaza? 3- What Ceasefire if Hamas Attacking Israel? Daniel Greenfield reports on an Australian Muslim Leader: "Also Kill Left-wing Anti-War Jews." First One Through provides us with a comprehensive summary of Arab hypocrisy in Please, Sir, May I Have Some More? Meanwhile, Dov Bar-Leib at End Of Days reports that ISIS Invades Lebanon: News at 11. Batya at Me-Ander presents us Running From Giants: A Book Review.

Monday, November 30, at the age of 97 in France died Marcus Klingberg – Israeli scientist, was convicted in the 80 years for espionage for the Soviet Union. Marcus Klingberg. Brief biography Abraham Marcus Klingberg was born in 1918 in Warsaw in a religious Jewish family. Already in his youth became interested in science, but his studies at the medical faculty of the University of Warsaw was interrupted by the war. Klingberg fled to the USSR, he continued his studies in Minsk and began working as an epidemiologist. In 1941 he joined the red army and most of the war took place in the medical parts. Towards the end of the war he was sent to Moscow for training. On one of versions, already in this period he came into contact with Soviet intelligence agencies. After the war, Klingberg returned to Poland and learned that his entire family perished in Treblinka. In 1949 Klingberg, after a short stay in Sweden, came to Israel with his wife Wanda, a specialist in Microbiology. In Israel Marcus and Wanda joined the ranks of the IDF, and Marcus, who had military experience, he rose to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel, and then went to work in the Institute of biology in ness Ziona, where he carried out development of means of protection against chemical and biological weapons. According to the official version, Klingberg was recruited after he addressed the Soviet authorities with a request to grant him a certificate of graduate medical education, but, apparently, in his book he will publish the real story of his recruitment. During the «cold war» the USSR had cooperated with the Arab States. The Israeli authorities decided that information about the vaccines got into the disposal of Arab intelligence services that has deprived the country the opportunity to defend itself effectively. In 2008, Israeli military censorship, at the request of the newspaper «Yediot Ahronot», was allowed to publish a new classified information about the capture of Marcus Klingberg, more than 30 years were kept in deep secret. According to the information then, in 1972, the KGB managed to infiltrate into Israeli elite of the spy who became a double agent and led, ultimately, to the capture of the employee’s biological Institute in ness Ziona Marcus Klingberg. Then in Israel, were sent by three people. The first is Shabtai Kalmanovich, a long time who took the Shin bet’s nose and arrested only in 1988. Two agent, later received the code names «Jupiter» and «Shomron» («Samaritan»), were summoned for questioning by the Shin bet shortly after the repatriation, like all who came in those years of the USSR. Their data caused suspicion of investigators, and former lead investigator of the Shin bet Yossi Ginnosar managed to crack them. Both were asked to become double agents. Very soon the «Samaritan» became a leading KGB agent in Israel, supplying to the Soviet Union a huge amount of information, processed by experts of ISA. In 1977, when Klingberg cut off communication with their mentors, the KGB decided to go to the «Samaritan» that he tried to contact him. «Samaritan» has left in the mailbox of the house of Klingberg a card with cipher, asking about the meeting. This meeting is documented by the staff of the Israel security Agency, and became the reason for the arrest of Klingberg. The name and any other information relating to the «Samaritan» is still prohibited for publication, but, according to one of those who worked with him, this man owed his career to the Shabak, and if not for his work as a double agent, he wouldn’t have achieved a tenth of what he has. Israeli security services suspected that Klingberg spy, but he was arrested in 1983. At a closed trial Klingberg was sentenced to 20 years in prison for treason and espionage, but until 1991 the fact of his arrest was kept in secret. Family Klingberg was silent. After his release from prison in 1998-m to year (for health reasons) Klingberg was placed under house arrest. At the end of the sentence went to Paris to see his daughter. He lived in Paris in one of the 35-meter apartment, on the left Bank of the Seine. On the day of his visiting daughter, once a week he saw his grandchildren. Klingberg received from Israel, a pension of up to 2,000 Euro as a Lieutenant Colonel in the Army of defence of Israel, but complained that it is barely enough for paying apartment rent, food, medical insurance, medication and frequent hospitalization. Wife of Marcus Klingberg, Wanda, died in 1990. In recent years, Marcus said that he is not afraid of death and considers himself an Israeli.

You can purchase the book on Amazon anytime in paperback or Kindle. Millions of people today experience guilt, shame, anger, anxiety, depression, or similarly disempowering emotions as a result of their indoctrination into organized religion and more individuals are leaving the faith they were born into and identifying themselves as spiritual rather than religious. My Spirit Is Not Religious: A Guide to Living YOUR Authentic Life, will help you eliminate emotional obstacles while providing guidelines for living a heartfelt spiritual life via lessons delivered from personal experiences — Tina Sacchi’s as well as those of her many clients and students. The intention is not to dismiss all organized religions, but to guide those for whom they no longer work and laying the groundwork for overcoming guilt, shame, loneliness, blame, anxiety, sadness, disappointment, and confusion. Whether you have a background in religion or not, this book will guide you to living YOUR authentic life. Tina Sacchi is a holistic & spiritual author, speaker, and teacher, born and raised in a close-knit New York City neighborhood. She attended religious schools from first grade through college, living a sheltered life in a strict religious and ethnic environment for years. Through her work, which includes private sessions, classes, retreats, workshops, expos, and radio shows, she has coached tens of thousands of individuals, helping them emerge from their spiritual “closets” to make a smooth transition to their spiritual calling. She is also the creator of a series of highly successful meditation and hypnotherapy CDs that have consistently remained on Amazon bestseller lists in their categories. She is an ongoing writer for various publications and is a radio personality, hosting her own program, Living a Spiritual Life with Tina Sacchi Some FACTS about SBNRs: “My Spirit Is Not Religious can help you heal yourself, your family, friends, clients, community, and the entire planet. I have never seen a more complete SBNR writing. Whether you have religious experience or not, this book will help you live YOUR authentic life.” –Stephanie Adams Through this book, “Tina provides practical lessons for those seeking to live a heartfelt spiritual life based on her own personal experiences and those of her many clients and students. Rather than simply dismissing the value of organized religion, this book offers guidance to those for whom organized religion no longer works and lays the groundwork for overcoming common emotional obstacles such as guilt, shame, loneliness, blame, anxiety, sadness, disappointment, and confusion.” Dr. Earl Blackman “Having come from a Catholic upbringing and believing, I, too, were to become a nun and then having my jewish mom teach all the tradition and culture alongside this I can readily relate to these issues. In fact, there was great animosity between my parents because of their cultural/religious upbringing until my father became president of a jewish firm on wall street. Oh, how money has swayed our very core!!! I sincerely appreciate your authentic sharing and personal recollection of spiritual journey. Heartful expression all-ways cuts to the core. That is where we resonate and find our truths. You do this well. Grateful! I know the need is in the world for the truths that you share. Especially, now, when religious sects are emerging in their falsity. Many people are experiencing shock and disappointment in the untruths be-ing unveiled. Many will be looking for the likes of the material that you share. It’s inevitable. Your book is timely and divinely delivered. That truly can be felt. I send you blessing and thanks and may this book generously flow to all that are seeking opportunities and growth on this magnificent spiritual journey!”

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