mentalblog.com: October 2004

Kerry's stepson Chris Heinz: "Israeli Lobby is too Powerful"

New York Post Online Edition Heinz also reminded writer Sasha Issenberg of Pat Buchanan by saying, "One of the things I've noticed is the Israel lobby - the treatment of Israel as the 51st state, sort of a swing state."

The State of Lubavitch in CA

Commenting on the previous post on The State of Lubavitch,
Anonymous said...

In a every lie there is some truth. Yes, there are shluchim who have become very succussful financially and yes the vast majority of the Shluchim are out to do good work. However, you can not deny that there are those rotten apples in the Chabad movement like Rabbi Cunin The Head Shliach of CAlifornia. He has destroyed many peoples lives and has built himself a vast real estate holding under the name Chabad of California. Therefore before anyone gives a penny to HIS telethon, please beware that he pockets the money for his own and does not give it to all the Shluchim in California as depicted in his fraudelant Telethon. All his children when they get married all have houses and cars in California. The poor people he says he feeds is nonesence. I actually know someone that went for a meal in the main Chabad House (741 Galey Ave.) and was thrown out and told not to come back again.
On a more painful issue, he has taken away at least to large pieces of property from Rabbi Naparstek in Marina Del Rey that Rabbi Shmulik Naparstek had built up through his own sweat and tears. He took the school away and it lays empty now in Playa Del Rey.
He has ostracised all the Shustermans and Swartzes from ever working for Chabad in California because he does not like their parents. As a matter of fact, it was Mrs. Swartz A'H who saved Zushi Cunin's life and this is Cunin's payback for the favor. She jumped into the pool to save Zushi's life.
Bottom line: DO NOT SUPPORT CHABAD OF CALIFORNIA'S TELETHON give to your local shliach who you know is doing good work.

Neighbors renew dispute with rabbi

Not to be outdone by his brother Rabbi Sholom Krinsky in Vilno, Rabbi Mendel Krinsky fights the town of Needham, MA.

A van is set on fire because of Hebrew bumper stickers

A Van is set on fire in Amherst, MA. The owner of a van that was set on fire Oct. 11 said he fears his family may have been targeted because the vehicle had four bumper stickers in Hebrew. The messages on the bumper stickers of the 1999 Mercury Villager van translate to, ''Messianic redemption is upon us at any moment and only the Messiah can redeem us,'' he said.

Our Kerry and the ball collection is growing.

An unidentified Israeli hugs a stone that is part of the memorial site for the late Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin in Tel Aviv's.(AFP-Yoav Lemmer)
Is that in the manner of the Breslover tradition?

Al Jazeera to Launch English TV Channel

You think we have it bad with CNN, BBC or goverment sunsidized NPR? Just wait, help is on the way... United Arab Emirates subsidized network said last month it planned to launch an English-language news channel to counteract what it says is unbalanced reporting from Western networks such as CNN and the BBC. Nigel Parsons, managing director of the new channel, said he was confident the channel would find an audience.

Grand Rabbi for Bush

Rabbi Shalom Yosef Elyashiv endorsed Bush. Responding to queries from Americans residing in Israel Rabbi Elyashiv has decided that Bush is better for Israel than his competitor, John Kerry, said an assistant to the rabbi, Haim Cohen.

The endorsement followed an agreement to built a tri-state water filtration facility in Lakewood NJ and an undisclosed amount of subsidies for a 21st century state of art wig and human hair harvesting center on the border of Pakistan and Afghanistan, the stronghold of monotheistic religion.

Under the plan the wig production will replace opium as a main source of income for the Pakistani and Afghani farmers, financially depleting the al-Qaida. Sources close to the Bush campaign indicated that they are pleased with the outcome of negotiations and extremely grateful for the endorsement, they praised Rabbi Elishav�s strategic vision.

Boxing Jews

Dmitriy Salita will fight only after sundown on the Sabbath and is scheduled to box Paul Delgado in New York November 18. Here you can see a video of Salita in action.

Roman Greenberg's record as a professional now stands at 16 victories in 16 bouts. Granted, in the world of boxing, even a less-talented contender can create a winning record, but the buzz around Greenberg is genuine. Respected experts, including Muhammad Ali's trainer Angelo Dundee and esteemed boxing commentator Tom Hauser, as well as other observers, believe that Greenberg could be the real thing. Some businessmen have already bet that Greenberg will become the heavyweight champion of one of the important boxing federations.

A Day in the Life of the Knesset

Palestine Uber Ales!

Sharon and Peres Reunited (:)

Political Exit ->>>

Election for Real Money

Tradesports is trading (for real money) in options contracts on sports, politics, ets.

A $100 paying contract that expires on election is trading at this moment as follows:
Bush $57.1
Kerry $43.2

There are also individual trades betting on State election wins. The following electoral conclusion comes via WSJ Best of the Web based on Friday's trades. Tradesports contract prices for individual states suggest a close race. Most states are solidly in the column of one candidate or the other, with Bush contracts selling for under $20 or over $80. Here are the swing states, with the prices for Bush contracts:
Michigan: $20.10
Pennsylvania: $33
New Mexico: $36.50
Minnesota $37.40
New Hampshire: $40
Iowa: $51
Wisconsin: $54.10
Ohio: $58.10
Florida: $64
Nevada: $77
(Note that Florida is solidly betting Bush, Ohio leaning Bush, but people are not willing to bet on Bush in Michigan, New Hampshire or even Pennsylvania) If we assume each candidate carries all states where his advantage as measured by these prices is more than $10, we come up with this electoral map:

Kerry picks up one Bush state from 2000 (New Hampshire, with 4 electoral votes). Bush has a slight advantage in all the three closest states--Iowa, Ohio and Wisconsin--of which he won only Ohio in 2000. If the other 47 states all follow Tradesports' expectations, Bush wins if he carries either Ohio or both Iowa and Wisconsin. Kerry needs Ohio along with either Iowa or Wisconsin.

This explains why the Terminator AKA Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger plans a high-profile trip to the presidential battleground state of Ohio on the weekend before the Nov. 2 election. In Ohio Schwarzenegger has "a following thanks to his annual Columbus-based Arnold Classic bodybuilding competition."

HalfJew

If you are a HalfJew, or if you know a HalfJew, or if you just wish you were a HalfJew, this site is for you.

Or perhaps even this is your site? Kudos to Bloghead

This updates our Kerry football collection here.

Arafat Backs Kerry, Israelis Favor Bush

Palestinian Authority on Monday gave its first public indication of which candidate it would like to see in the White House next year.
"If [President] Bush wins, he said he would renew efforts to resume the peace process," PA foreign minister Nabil Shaath told the BBC in London. "However, with the staff that surrounds him and with his current opinions, it doesn't look promising."
Under a Kerry administration, however, "it would be likely that several staff members during Clinton's administration would return," Shaath said. "That would be a good thing, but it could take at least a year before a policy is formulated."
Elaborating on the PA's unhappiness with the incumbent, the Palestine Media Center -- an official PA institution -- said Palestinians held the Bush administration responsible for Israel's isolation of Arafat since the end of 2001.

Adam Ragil talking politics.
Michelle Malkin on TERESA, SAD AND SUBDUED.

Head of the Foxes

Out of Step Jew added profound postmodern thoughts to the previously described incident with the lions and the whisky. A more far reaching question is the relationship of Rabbi Mayer Twersky and the family to Boston. Rav Soloveitchik, although nominally a Boston Dayan, spent most of his daylight hours in the YU ghetto. For Rav Soloveitchik Boston was just a �bedroom community�.

Professor Isadore Twersky would look at you with his penetrating eyes but he remained or appeared aloof, detached and uninvolved. Isadore Twersky as his father in law Rav Soloveitchik dedicated himself to the other town, in his case Cambridge. He would preach Rambam to a selected group of Harvard students. His Talner Shule no longer Hasidic is a small boutique attended by Jews with nostalgia for intellectual life, and a taste for Nusach Sfarad davening with Yeki accent. The Shule is in a Brookline neighborhood long out of reach even to the upper middle class.

Following in the footsteps of his predecessors Rabbi Mayer Twersky completely moved from Boston ministering to the Talner congregation on occasional Shabbos or Yontev. Could it be possible that the removal of the lions and the whisky is his only tangible contribution to the Jewish life in Boston?

America the Beautiful

Here comes a box for disposal of your sacred texts. Artist's invention aims to solve longstanding problem of Jewish "trash". The Shaimos Box is a utilitarian, 12 by 7 by 15-inch wooden box painted green, 'to represent the Earth,' says Goldstein. 'I wanted it to mark a designated corner in everyone's house.

Marty Peretz on Kerry and Jews

Instapundit reports: Ouch-

Kerry Lands a Key Endorsement

GREENSBORO, Oct. 9, 2004
Muslims for a better North Carolina endorses John Kerry for president:

On the war in Iraq, Kerry's adamant support of a world-wide coalition to restore order to Iraq is more even-handed than Bush's heavy-handed, "you with us or you're against us" approach. Kerry's vision for peace in the Middle East, Ali said, is much more like that of former President Bill Clinton, who worked openly and fairly to create a lasting peace n the area. The Bush administration's forays into the Middle East on all fronts have done nothing but increase tensions and hatred toward Americans.

Rabbi Lazer Brody on the physical and communicative intimacy.

Twersky, Lions, Whiskey, etc.

Steve Weiss wrote about rumors concerning removal by Rabbi Mayer Twersky of the lions and whisky in Talner Shule in Boston. I do not know about the whiskey but a member of the shule wrote to me that "the lions are indeed gone, replaced by the blessing hands..."

Years ago when Mayer Twersky was still in Harvard studying Greek and Latin I ask him why? His sincere answer was that he "wanted to understand a cultural context of Talmud". We left it at that. Now Rabbi Mayer�s thinking seems to take a different turn. In this Audio lecture �Living as a Jew in Gentile Society� Rabbi Mayer Twersky advises Jews against going to college. In fact he admits that he made a mistake himself.

Can Judaism function while in defensive posture? We were led to believe that the legacy of Soloveitchik was to bravely take on modernity outside of the ghetto. It seems that Mayer concluded that we need to retreat.

Can any defensive culture endure? Yes I know we lasted thus far�

Chabad's Lost Son

Yair Sheleg writes about a murky issue of Alter Rebbe's son conversion to Christianity Haaretz - Article

PS In the first paragraph: Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi (1902-1994) Ha???

Prewar Warsaw

A ten minute movie clip of Warsaw in 1939. The lost world of tension, community and creative density. It appears that blogging was alive and well in prewar Warsaw, it boasted no less than 27 Yiddish Dailies!

More on the Gulf

Bloghead - The Forward: More on the gulf between the Russian Jewish immigrants in North American and the mainstream Jewish community

Gulf Widens Between Russian and American Jews

Jewish Week Reports here: A quote:

Victor Topaller, a popular conservative talk show host on RTV-I, a New York based Russian language cable television station that can be seen worldwide, said he is hopeful that �Russian Jews, with their more conservative viewpoint, will begin to have a similar impact in the American Jewish community as they did in Israel, where they became a powerful political force.

Kudos to Out of Step Jew

Russian or American Men?

A delightful article by Michele Berdy comparing Russian and American men. Michelle lives in Moscow and many of her insights are hilarious and sharp. Ok, here it goes: Gather together five women in any Moscow kitchen...

Kudos to Patrick Belton of Oxblog

$45 mil Anonymous Donation to Boston's Jewish Schools!

$45 mil Anonymous Donation to Boston's Jewish Schools!

First impressions:

WOW!

This what many of us though of as the most glaring imbalance in the Jewish philanthropy. CJP, for better or for worse, the only professionally run Jewish organization in Boston poised to blaze the way and stage a grand redemption!

Actually $10 mil / 5 years (read the article) is a meager $2 mil per year. Unfortunately this is just drop in a bucket floating in an ocean of Jewish cultural illiteracy. But let's not underestimate the tremendous gift.

I am not sure if the anonymous gift is a good thing. We want to put theses people on a pedestal, they are the role models and they should serve as an example to other generous souls.

Boy, this town is up against big obstacles. High costs of real estate and yes lack of affordable Jewish schools have bled the Jewish fabric in Boston for decades.

Russian Jewish immigration, arguably an elite of the Jewish immigration to America, largely neglected for over 25 years. Many came here with enthusiasm for things Jewish, many hoped to place the kids in Jewish schools. This opportunity and I am afraid many Jews are lost forever.

But now is the time to loud this tremendous gift!

Kudos to Miriam Shaviv for pointing out the news

Lubavitch 614th Mitzvah

Bloghead:

We're looking for people to be more involved in Jewish tradition,' the rabbi explained, 'but everybody does that in his or her own way. Our goal is to inspire people to do more acts of goodness and kindness, but we're not specifying how they do that.' Such acts, called mitzvahs, are said to convey blessings on those who perform them. One way Jews can perform them is to contribute either money or professional services to Chabad Lubavitch of Westchester..

The Zeros vs. the Ones by John C. Dvorak

PC Magazine published John Dvorak's attack against blogs. The article is not on the web yet so I scanned it in. Enjoy:

After witnessing the latest Presidential election process, it's apparent to me that the Internet is turning into a bad dream. Nobody wants to admit it, but the Web's natural ability to remove normal interpersonal structures that prevent society from falling into chaos is not a benefit to anyone. Information revolution notwithstanding, the Internet will prove to be the undoing of society and civilization as we know it. It may not happen today, but it will happen sooner than we think.

Just look at politics. Thanks to the Net and the so-called New Media, the entire political scene has become one massive virtual Hyde Park corner filled with kvetching, squabbling bores. In the process, the dichotomous nature of binary communication has imposed itself on the public, forming two collectives with opposing and very rigid viewpoints. Call them the Ones and the Zeros: the conservatives and the liberals. Because of the Internet, these two crowds� or mobs�are each growing in size and becoming increasingly intolerant of the other. Since none of the purely liberal or conservative political parties are taken seriously in the U.S., these mobs have latched on to the major parties and hijacked them.

The best example of this is the recent sniping over the fabled George Bush memos in which he was told to take a military physical in 1972. It seemed as if the letter could not have been written on a 1972 typewriter but was some sort of hoax. The two political beehives swarmed over this, making all sorts of accusations against anyone who even suggested that their side might be wrong. The untenable Democratic position (which was the weaker) managed to save face by accusing Karl Rove of setting them up. As I was reading all this, I thought to myself, "So he was asked to take a physical. Who cares?" There were other documents, of course, but it was an eye roller to everyone except the Zeros and Ones, whose ranks continue to grow.

Rather than benefit from intelligent debate, the public is subjected to a lot of bickering fanned by the Internet. I used to think that everyone was entitled to his opinion, but no longer. Most opinions arc H worthless. As a culture, we are trained never to believe or say that opinions are worthless. For some reason, opinions are supposed to be revered because, uh, well, it's free speech! (No letters, please.)

I am not suggesting that because most opinions stink they should be censored in order for us all to think a certain way. Rather, thanks to the Internet, we are confronted with too many opinions from too many people�a large number of whom are seriously disturbed or feebleminded. Before the Internet, these opinions would have been handed out in leaflet form to just a few people unlucky enough to bump into their purveyors. But now they're on the Net, accompanied by miles of commentary written by people who arc frustrated pamphleteers themselves.

Almost everyone on the Net is anonymous. When you see someone on the street handing out a flyer, it is usually not hard to determine whether he or she is a lunatic. Not so with the haughty blogger who, by hiding behind a good online template, is actually taken seriously. A blogger who stays hidden long enough may even become famous. 1 know, not every blogger is a whack job�but that's the point. How can you tell? Saying from behind a false identity what one otherwise wouldn't dare say is a practice that began long ago, and blogging has just made it worse. I first noticed it with alter egos cropping up in e-mail, news-groups, and especially online chat rooms, where true dweebs are suddenly transformed into Don Juans. The persona thing sometimes goes into new dimensions as boys arc turned into men, men pretend to be women, and women turn into sex fiends. Just keep the lights turned off.

Blogs arc now the easiest way to remake oneself, as the tools for their creation are fantastic and easy to use. They have emboldened a lot of otherwise shy people. This is the New Media at work, creating false personas that are pumped up by other phonies. Under the right circumstances, virtual lynch mobs emerge like swarms of locusts�individual bugs may be easy to squish, but a swarm is dangerous. I think these online mobs, where one or two troublemakers rile up the frustrated, are just as dangerous.

If it were up to me, I'd shut down the Net tomorrow and make people get out of the house and mingle. By the time the liberal and conservative extremes, incensed by blog-driven blather, leave the house; it will be as two swarms of locusts hell-bent on revolution�or on battling each other: The Zeros versus the Ones.

MORE ON THE WEB: Read John C. Dvorak's column every Monday at www.pcmag.com/dvorak. You can reach him directly atpcmag@dvorak.org.

Daniel Drezner - here comes 40 year mortgage, all interest all the time...

VERMEER VAN DELFT, Girl with a Red Hat, 1668, Oil on panel, National Gallery of Art, Washington

Jerusalem revealed: Noa tries her hand at Luke Ford imitation...

Kerry Tax Rate: 12.8%

DRUDGE REPORT FLASH: Middle Class Said To Pay Higher Tax Rate Than Heinz Kerry And Kerry.

Stephen Moore, president of the Club for Growth, writes in the WALL STREET JOURNAL on Monday: "According to the Kerrys' own tax records, and they have not released all of them, the couple had a combined income of $6.8 million in income last year and paid $725,000 in income taxes. That means their effective tax rate was a whopping 12.8%.... "Under the current tax system the middle class pays far more than the Kerry tax rate. In fact, the average federal tax rate -- combined payroll and income tax -- for a middle-class family is closer to 20% or more. George W. and Laura Bush, who had an income one- tenth of the Kerrys', paid a tax rate of 30%. ...

"Here is the man who finds clever ways to reduce his own tax liability while voting for higher taxes on the middle class dozens of times in his Senate career. He even voted against the Bush tax cut that saves each middle-class family about $1,000." The Kerrys "have unwittingly made the case for what George W. Bush says he wants to do: radically simplify and flatten out the tax code. ... So before John Kerry is given the opportunity to raise taxes again on American workers, shouldn't he and Teresa at least pay their fair share?"

The State of Lubavitch

Lubavitch today is a franchise catering to Jewish sentimentality. The purpose of every shliach on the face of the earth is to provide for his family, to extract money from well to do Jews and in the process hopefully do the right thing, in that order.

Many Lubavichers descended on the depleted communities of Europe and the former USSR. Alas they found a fertile ground. They call themselves Chief Rabbis. They lay claim to real estate abandoned by dead Jews and in the case of Russia they are supported by Jews with "questionable sources of income". They live in mansions and have homecare army befitting feudal lords. Shlichus is a business, often a big business, hence Paul's observation here.

On the other hand when they come to communities with significant Jewish presence like Boston for example, the success is very limited.

How possibly can this movement project a positive image now that the organization has been crippled by the passion for the Rebbe? It is no secret that majority of Shluchim are in the anti machichist camp, they know too well, it hurts the business.

Where does this all leave a sincere Lubavitcher Yid? G-d knows�

WJC Imbroglio in the Swiss Jewish Press

I draw your attention to two articles translated from the Swiss Jewish weekly, Tachles. It is from Swiss Jewish leaders that the allegations about financial irregularities were first drawn to my attention.
Isi Leibler

Daniel W. Drezner: The balance of trade in transatlantic romances.

Things seem dark today. Everything is wrecking.

Mashiach riding an elephant

In a dramatic development Lubavitch gives up on Jews and shifts the efforts towards spreading Torah to our Arab cousins. Emboldened by the global push the Hasidic Scholars are now successfully utilizing the latest technology to teach Seven Laws of Noach to preliterate tribesmen in India. "The turbans are pretty cool"- reported one of the students from Brooklyn. The student was unaware that for centuries wearing of a turban was symbolic of the Islamic faith. In fact conversion of Shabbtai Zevi to Islam was ceremoniously sealed by donning of a turban.

Despite predictable setbacks caused by stubborn refusal of the tribesmen to sponsor a rabbi and his family of fifteen in a room and board accommodation in the Himalayan mountains the strategy to concentrate on gentiles instead of Jews already paid early dividends. Exiting news spreading like a wild fire via global 770 satellite feeds. Contrary to the traditional belief that Mashiach will ride a donkey there have been sightings of Mashiach riding an elephant.

Samuel Pepys Diary. October 14th, 1663

He describes what sounds like a Simchat Torah in a Portugese Synagogue in London. (Thanks Miriam)

Where do these people get such a superb sense of color? (Thanks Instapundit)

1 mil American Jews live in low-income households

The Forward reports: Close to 1 million people in American Jewish families live in low-income households, according to a new study that appears to be the most extensive national communal study ever done about economic vulnerability among American Jews.

The report also underscores the difficulty that some poor families face in accessing Jewish communal institutions. Fully 25% of poor Jews said that costs prevented them from joining a synagogue, and 17% said they were unable to keep kosher because of the cost.

The 1990 survey had found that poor Jews were less likely to be religiously observant than those with higher incomes, apparently due to the cost of participation. That was seen as a reversal of a traditional pattern in which wealthier Jews were considered less observant. The new findings appear likely to confirm the 1990 trend.

The study did confirm many well-known trends among the Jewish poor, including the high degree of economic trouble among immigrants from the former Soviet Union, 50% of whom are under the low-income threshold. The Los Angeles study found that in the Fairfax neighborhood, which is heavy with immigrants, fully 33% of Jews were under the poverty line.

If one to assume 6 mil Jews in America then every sixth Jew you meet is poor.

The NRO delivers the quote of the debate:

KERRY: Well, let me tell you straight up: I've never changed my mind about Iraq. I do believe Saddam Hussein was a threat. I always believed he was a threat. Believed it in 1998 when Clinton was president.

Later in the debate answering a question on Iran�

KERRY: I don't think you can just rely on U.N. sanctions, Randee. But you're absolutely correct, it is a threat, it's a huge threat. And what's interesting is, it's a threat that has grown while the president has been preoccupied with Iraq, where there wasn't a threat.

After the liberation De Gaulle's government held on to internees from many countries in officially closed centres to hide collaboration. The papers, part of a cache of 12,000 photocopied illegally by an Austrian-born Jew, reveal the extent to which French officials collaborated with their fleeing Nazi occupiers even as their country was being liberated. They also show that, when the war was over, France went to extraordinary lengths to hide as much evidence of that collaboration as possible.

What is happening to the American orthodox middle ground? Is it washed away? Modern orthodoxy is being absorbed into black garb religion or abandonment of observance. First there is this wonderfully personal post by Psycho Toddler: Modern Orthodox in a Frummy Velt.

Adam Ragil contemplates the future of his son.

A senior from YU writes about "Orthodox Disunion". Why is Yeshiva University Divorcing its Secular Side?

We have found a "Luke Ford journalism" at it's best. Too bad he didn't actually write it. My Body Is Jewish by Paula Kirman.

Pat Robertson in Jerusalem

American television personality and evangelical Christian leader Pat Robertson, backed by an Israeli flag, delivers a speech to a crowd of mostly evangelical Christians from various nations on a pilgrimage to Israel, during an event of the International Christian Embassy in Jerusalem, Sunday, Oct. 3, 2004. Led by Robertson, thousands of Christian pilgrims gathered in the Holy Land to express support for Israel, with hundreds joining a prayer session in the heart of Jerusalem. (AP Photo/Brennan Linsley)

In the Jewish time-warp

by Jeff Jacoby
When they go to the polls in November, which of the two major parties will American Jews support? Consider:

* At Party A's national convention, a prime speaking slot went to an infamous racial inciter, one with an ugly history of Jew-baiting. At Party B's convention, a leading speaker recalled with empathy the many pre-9/11 victims of terrorism, such as Leon Klinghoffer, whom the killers "marked . . . for murder solely because he was Jewish."

* Party A's presidential nominee said nothing about Israel in his convention acceptance speech. Party B's nominee, on the other hand, made a point of referring to "our good friend Israel" � and his campaign later distributed that portion of his remarks to its national email list.

* Increasingly, Party A is the political home of those who demonize Jews, such as the South Carolina senator who claimed that the war in Iraq was launched to "take the Jewish vote." Conversely, Party B has driven out the anti-semites in its midst, and is now where the most ardent philo-semites in American politics are concentrated.

So which party will American Jews vote for in November?