Friday May 9, 2008
http://www.jewishsf.com/content/2-0-/module/displaystory/story_id/35208/format/html/displaystory.html
by rachel freedenberg
The woman on the other end of the phone sounds confident, mature and collected. But eight years ago, when she sat across from an Israeli draft board officer, she was told otherwise.
Reading from a computer screen, he recited the diagnosis that would determine whether she would sit behind a border crossing or a desk. The conclusion: Overly emotional. Socially anxious. Disconnected from reality.
And that’s how Miriam Libicki ended up as a jobnik.
The scene with the draft officer is in the prologue to Libicki’s autobiographical comic “jobnik!,” which depicts a few of the 17 months she spent in the Israel Defense Forces, working as a secretary in an infirmary on an army base. (The term “jobnik” roughly translates as “pencil pusher.”)
Libicki is one of the up-and-coming Jewish graphic novelists who will be speaking May 20 at a San Francisco art space as part of the JCCSF’s Serial Boxes series, an exploration of the graphic novel. The panel discussion at Intersection for the Arts will also feature Berkeley native Ariel Schrag, author of the acclaimed graphic novel “Potential” and former writer for “The L Word.”
For those of you who grew up with copies of “The Invincible Iron Man” under your pillow, the term “graphic novel” may come off a bit pretentious. And yet, the notion of telling a story via pictures need not involve gamma rays or impossibly slim-waisted women.
One could go as far as calling the graphic novel a Jewish invention. The first tome to earn that lofty title was “A Contract with God,” a 1978 classic from comics master Will Eisner; the best-known graphic novel is arguably the Holocaust-themed “Maus,” penned by Art Spiegelman (a previous speaker at a Serial Boxes event).
And yet, perhaps “graphic novelist” isn’t the most accurate way to describe Libicki or Shrag. That’s because their books aren’t novels — they’re memoirs.
“My job was almost nothing, really,” Libicki, 26, says in an interview from her home in a suburb of Vancouver.
“They didn’t need a secretary — I think it just kind of came up on the base, you know, ‘we’re getting some new girls, they’re not trained for anything, they’re going to be secretaries in the office.’”
Libicki filed mail, made photocopies, burned secret documents, “but outside of that, there was basically nothing to do … [My boss] would print out this clip art and want me to go to the base’s publishing office and get it laminated.”
It wasn’t exactly what she had signed up for.
A native of Columbus, Ohio, Libicki grew up in a Modern Orthodox home and moved to Israel in the summer of 1998, after finishing high school at Columbus Torah Academy.
She entered Mechina, a program for Israeli teens who have finished high school but want to take a year to do Torah study prior to entering the military. Libicki studied in the mornings and did community service in the evenings.
During that year she decided to make aliyah, and became an Israeli citizen. With all her classmates joining the army the following year, in a burst of patriotism Libicki joined the IDF. She first put on a uniform in August 2000.
A month later, the second intifada began.
After spending 17 months in the army, Libicki was free to go. So she left — the army and Israel.
“It would be nice if I could keep it mysterious and say that there’s this big revelation at the end of [‘jobnik!’], but basically it was that I wanted to go to college after the army,” Libicki said.
She applied to the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design in Jerusalem, but didn’t get in. She ended up going to Seattle University for a year, then transferred to the Emily Carr Institute in Vancouver.
Although Libicki had been reading comics since she was a child and drawing for most of her life — a few scenes in “jobnik!” revolve around her sketches — it wasn’t until college that she got serious about putting the two together.
“I started drawing comics when I had a story,” Libicki says, and that story was the IDF.
“Jobnik!” began in an art class about a year after she came back from Israel: With an assignment to create something in Adobe Illustrator, Libicki took a few pages from a journal she’d kept in the army and made a comic out of it.
Putting her experience into comic form, rather than writing a book, seemed like a natural fit.
“I feel like I’m a good enough writer to make up for my flaws in drawing, and vice versa,” she says. “It really works for me that things like description, you can just draw it instead, and concentrate on dialogue and keeping things moving.”
Today, “jobnik!” is drawn by hand. Libicki uses soft, dark pencils to draw the scenes and characters, then scans the pages into her computer and lays the text in Illustrator.
“Jobnik!” is currently made up of six issues of around 24 pages each, including a page of Hebrew glossary words. Libicki is about “a third to halfway through” and intends to end her story in February 2001, although her tour of duty actually ended in May 2002.
In the meantime, she is compiling the current issues of “jobnik!” into a single volume. She expects the book will hit bookstores and Amazon.com in June.
“A graphic novel is a better way to read my series than as comic books,” she says. “I think I’m doing a longer-formed story, and I want people to get a chance to read it in that longer form.”
That story, so far, follows Libicki’s daily life on the base and the idiosyncrasies she encounters: a soldier who constantly calls her “Rivka,” the strict rules about going on leave. The intifada itself is also a major player, with the text of radio announcements and news reports overlaying many of the panels.
The main focus, however, is on Libicki’s relationships with three Israeli men — Shachar, Asher and Roi. (“Maybe I shouldn’t say if I used real names,” she jokes.)
Libicki’s characters are drawn with large, soft eyes and curvy, plump limbs. “I would say it’s influenced by Terry Moore, maybe a bit by Maurice Sendak — I was always a big fan of him,” she says. “It resembles manga [Japanese comics] a little bit in that [the eyes] are twice or three times the size that a person’s eyes would really be.”
While “jobnik!” is her major opus, Libicki has done other army-themed illustrative pieces — namely “Towards a Hot Jew,” a three-page spread published in New Voices magazine in 2006. Subtitled “The Israeli Soldier as a Fetish Object,” the piece looks at why “the Jew in North American consciousness is curiously unsexy,” juxtaposed with photorealistic drawings of attractive, gun-wielding Israelis.
The reaction to her comics by former and current soldiers in the Israeli army has been generally positive, Libicki says. Many have seemed appreciative of her mostly upbeat portrayal of the army. And they like that the comic is done in English, which opens up the oft-misunderstood world of the IDF to people outside of Israel.
But that English-speaking audience isn’t always ready to hear about it.
“At conventions, sometimes people will confront me,” Libicki says.
“I’ve gotten it from the right and the left — when we’re talking about ‘jobnik!,’ it’s usually the leftist people that are horrified that I could be humanizing Israeli soldiers or that I could believe in the state of Israel. But then with [‘Towards a Hot Jew’], it’s people on the right … saying that I hate Israel or that I’m an anti-Semite.”
For the record, she’s neither. And for those accusers, she has one thing to say: “You may want to check out my other comics.”
She sees the graphic novel genre as a perfect medium for Jewish stories.
“A theme of Jewish storytelling and, really, Jewish life, is joy in sadness and sadness in joy. That’s something that comic books can do a lot — I think the ambivalence of holding two thoughts in your head at once is well suited to a medium where you have pictures and text working together or working in opposition — if you’re saying one thing and showing something else.”
But being Jewish and selling comics can be a challenging prospect.
Although Libicki has moved away from the Orthodoxy of her youth — “I think I’m more toward Conservative today” — she still keeps kosher and observes Shabbat.
But it’s noon on a Friday — and Libicki is about to begin a 12-hour drive to the two-day Calgary Comic and Entertainment Expo.
“A lot of the compromises that I’ve made are to work these comic-cons, because almost all of them include a day on Saturday,” she admits.
Her husband isn’t Jewish, so the two have worked out a system where she doesn’t have to handle money at a Saturday convention — but it’s still a tradeoff.
“Technically I can keep the laws, although it’s not a very Shabbos activity to be hawking comic books,” she says wryly.
While Libicki’s army experience still haunts her, the ability to turn even the worst moments — like seeing dozens of air force planes shooting across the sky as the intifada roared to life — into beautifully rendered panels has helped her deal with some of the more painful memories from her time as a jobnik.
“Whenever I think about my army experience, I’m thinking about how to make it into a good story,” she says.
“I’ve found myself feeling nostalgic for the army, but I don’t think I’m feeling nostalgic for the real army. I’m feeling nostalgic for what I wrote.”
While Libicki has had years to grow nostalgic, Ariel Schrag had mere days.
It was the summer after ninth grade. Schrag was 15 and, like many girls her age, was taking time to reflect on the year that had passed — the parties, the concerts, the boys.
Unlike most 15-year-olds, though, over the next three months she would painstakingly write, draw, ink and photocopy those reflections into a 60-odd-page book entitled “Awkward.” Then she would hand out copies to her classmates — many of whom had unwittingly played starring roles.
“Awkward” was Schrag’s first graphic novel. Now 28, she is the author of two more (with another on the way), is a former writer for “The L Word” and the editor of a comic anthology.
In addition to the Serial Boxes panel discussion, she will also teach a graphic novel master class May 19 at Intersection for the Arts, covering topics such as beginning a graphic novel, narrative pacing and comic vocabulary.
Schrag grew up in Berkeley and attended Berkeley High School, which is the main setting for “Awkward,” “Definition” and “Potential,” her series of high school comics.
The books are more than just reminiscences on typical high-school angst: Over the course of the four years, Schrag dealt with her parents’ separation and divorce, coming out as bisexual and eventually as a lesbian, having her first serious girlfriend and, of course, AP chemistry.
When “Awkward” was a hit with her classmates, Schrag followed it up with “Definition” and “Potential,” which examined 10th and 11th grade, respectively. (A senior-year comic, “Likewise,” has been in the inking process “for the past decade.”)
Although creating a full-length, autobiographical comic at the age of 15 may sound precocious, it wasn’t completely new territory for Schrag.
She had been drawing “since forever,” she says in an interview from New York, where she’s hanging out at the apartment of her friend and fellow cartoonist Gabrielle Bell.
Schrag’s earliest foray into something resembling comics came at age 2, when she would draw a picture and then tell her mother what to write as a caption. But in the third grade, after reading “Maus,” Schrag made her first long-form comic, entitled “Life With Lucy Hound.” It’s a “semi-autobiographical” book about a poor girl who wants a dog, gets one and becomes a millionaire.
Semi-autobiographical?
“It’s exploring issues of identity,” Schrag says. She was 9 when she wrote the book, and “it’s about a 9-year-old girl hanging out with friends and wondering whether she should be cool or not.”
Those issues would be explored in much more depth in “Awkward” and its sequels, which spare no details of Schrag’s life while exploring her blossoming identity as a lesbian.
Art-wise, Schrag calls her comics “cartoony” — giant eyes and mouths and exaggerated expressions are her calling card, though she does delve into a more detailed, realistic style in fantasy and dream sequences.
Her early work mostly revolves around her obsessions with actress Juliette Lewis and, inexplicably, high school science classes, but gradually evolves into a deeply introspective look at teenage relationships. “Potential,” which mainly follows Schrag through her shaky courtship with the enigmatic Sally Jults, is the most candid and graphic, in both artwork (this one isn’t for the kids) and emotion.
“As the series progressed, I became more and more obsessed with this concept of truth-telling and getting to the heart of whatever the truth is and who I was, and exposing all of that,” Schrag says.
Which means that bathroom trysts with Sally, her parents’ acrimonious divorce and Schrag’s bizarrely Freudian dreams are all on full display.
“There might be something that was super-embarrassing or shameful, but for those very reasons I had to put them in,” Schrag says. “The point of the story was somebody who’s trying to figure out exactly who they were, and that means baring everything.”
And it’s not just herself that Schrag bares — she also reveals intimate details about her friends’ lives, although their names have been changed.
“When people hear about it they have a sort of violent reaction — I’ve had people say, ‘how could you say that about other people?’” Schrag says. “But all the characters are written with an amount of love, and the point of the books is never to expose anything about anybody that’s their personal business. It’s always only because I’m telling a story.”
Religion is never mentioned in her comics, but Schrag notes that she was raised Jewish, though she is only Jewish on her father’s side — “which I guess makes me not really Jewish,” she says.
“But I’ve always identified as Jewish ’cause I kind of have a big nose — I know that’s weird, but it’s true!” she adds, laughing.
Turning serious, Schrag notes that her Jewish identity “is definitely entirely cultural — there was never any religious aspect to it. When I have kids I’ll want to continue celebrating the holidays and teaching them about Judaism, but in a secular way.”
She sees her comics as being Jewish “in the Woody Allen sense — neurotic and self-involved.
“At the same time, I completely did not have worried Jewish parents growing up … I had Berkeley hippie parents, so I can’t say that’s related, but maybe it’s in your blood.”
After graduating from Berkeley High, Schrag attended Columbia University in New York. She lived in New York for nine years, then moved to Los Angeles, where she currently lives.
She wrote for the Showtime series “The L Word” for two seasons, and in 2002, the production company Killer Films approached her about possibly adapting her comics into a film. That led to her writing a screenplay version of “Potential.”
While “Potential” is in the casting phase, Schrag is busy working on a TV pilot with a friend, and trying to complete “Likewise.” “It’s finally coming to a close,” she says with a sigh.
And when “Likewise” comes out, it’ll surely mean another round of truth-telling from the ever-candid Schrag.
While most of her friends were supportive of the books, not everyone was happy with Schrag’s first three comics — including a former classmate (who doesn’t appear in the books) who posted a negative review of “Potential” on a Web site, calling her work disrespectful.
When “Likewise” comes out, Schrag may get a similar reaction. But this time, she has a ready comeback.
“This friend of mine, who is actually in the books,” Schrag says, “she was telling me she wanted to go on and write a response, like, ‘Uh, I’m actually in the books, and my vagina is exposed, and I don’t care at all!’”
Hear from the artists
The panel discussion featuring Miriam Libicki and Ariel Schrag (along with graphic novelists Jaime Cortez and Keith Knight) was organized by Dan Wolf, program manager for the Hub, the JCCSF’s group for Jewish adults in their 20s and 30s.
Wolf sees graphic novels as a new medium for telling Jewish stories. “It’s an art form that’s immediate, artistic, individual, but yet is not a talking head or your grandmother talking about the Holocaust,” he says.
“It’s not just for the guys that want to grab a couple comic books on Saturdays — you can actually tell an important story with this medium.”
Wolf’s research into Jewish graphic novelists drew him to Schrag and Libicki, whose names came up over and over.
“Ariel’s writing is phenomenal — it’s very topical and very unique. It’s honest,” he says. “With Miriam, I like the angles on her cartoons, the images of women with machine guns. There’s a power to her work that drew me to it.”
The graphic novel master class with Ariel Schrag will take place 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. May 19 at Intersection for the Arts, 446 Valencia St., S.F. There is a $50 fee for JCCSF members, $60 for the general public. The panel discussion will take place 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. May 20 at Intersection for the Arts. Tickets are $5-$15 on a sliding scale. For more information about both events, visit www.jccsf.org or www.theintersection.org.
In addition, the Serial Boxes series will present graphic novelist and MacArthur “genius grant” recipient Ben Katchor, author of “The Jew of New York,” in conversation with Josh Kornbluth, 8 p.m. Monday, May 12 at the JCCSF’s Kanbar Hall, 3200 California St., S.F. Tickets: $8-$10. Information: www.jccsf.org.
Friday, May 9, 2008
Tuesday, May 6, 2008
Some more from the NY Times on the Olmert Scandal
Olmert Tied to New York Developer in Scandal
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/07/world/middleeast/07olmert.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin
By ALISON LEIGH COWAN
Published: May 7, 2008
A Long Island philanthropist and fundraiser for Israeli charities is at the center of an enveloping scandal around Israel’s prime minister, Ehud Olmert, that has riveted and agitated Israel despite a veil of secrecy over the ongoing investigation.
The man, Morris Talansky, 75, was apparently approached by the Israeli authorities when he arrived at the Tel Aviv airport expecting to spend Passover with his daughter and son, who live in Jerusalem. It is unclear if Mr. Talansky is only a witness or also a suspect in the case.
Israeli prosecutors asked a Jerusalem court on Tuesday for permission to take testimony from a foreign man, widely understood to be Mr. Talansky, even though prosecutors have yet to file any charges in the case. That probe appears to involve suspicion of bribery or campaign finance irregularities involving Mr. Olmert that took place in 1999. At that time, Mr. Olmert served as mayor of Jerusalem and was running against former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon for the leadership of the Likud party.
Police have imposed a strict gag order that forbids publication of information about the case in Israel. Mr. Talansky’s name and nationality have not been made public, but details of the investigation have circuclated among politicians and journalists there in recent days. The New York Post published his name on Tuesday, leading Israeli radio announcers to tell listeners to go to the newspaper’s web site without saying why.
Mr. Olmert has told his cabinet and associates that rumors that he took bribes and may be facing a legal morass that could topple him will prove baseless once the investigation is completed. But the speculation about his future has weakened him politically even as he undertakes delicate negotiations with Israel’s neighbors under pressure from the Bush administration. Opposition politicians say he should not negotiate with the Palestinians or send messages to the Syrians under such circumstances.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice just returned from Jerusalem and President Bush is due there next week as part of a concerted American push to close an Israeli-Palestinian peace framework by the end of Mr. Bush’s tenure.
The fundraising in 1999 that prompted the investigation into Mr. Olmert also led to campaign finance charges against people close to Mr. Sharon. His son, Omri Sharon, is serving a prison term as a result of that case.
Mr. Talansky, an Orthodox Jew who briefly led a congregation in Portland, Ore. in the 1950’s as a young rabbinical graduate of Yeshiva University, turned to business and philanthropy in his later career, when he lived mainly in the New York suburbs.
His first marriage to Miriam Kriger ended after forty years, and two of their three children moved to Israel. He and his current wife Helene live in the Woodsburgh section of Woodmere, in a nine-room, red-brick Colonial that he paid $1.175 million for in 2004. He also lists that as his business address, and lists himself as the chief executive, of Global Resources, an investment firm.
A man answering the Mr. Talansky’s phone on Monday said, “They’re not going to return your call,” and hung up the phone. No one responded to a knock on his front door on Tuesday.
Within Jewish circles, Mr. Talansky is best known for the years he spent as a fundraiser for the American Committee for Shaare Zedek Hospital in Jerusalem. A popular cause with American Jewry, the hospital’s American fundraising has raised tens of millions of dollars in recent years, including $20 million in 2002 alone, one of its best years, according to available tax returns.
Paul Glasser, the national director for the American organization, said Mr. Talansky had not worked for the charity since 1997. But the organization reported on its 2004 tax return that Mr. Talansky earned $90,000 that year as a consultant, a year that the organization pulled in $16 million from outside sources.
Tax records also show Mr. Talansky also served as the main contact and treasurer for the American branch of the New Jerusalem Foundation, a charity closely associated with Mr. Olmert that raises money for Israeli causes. The American branch got its tax exemption in the United States in 1999, when Mr. Olmert was mayor of Jerusalem.
According to the charity’s recent tax returns, it raised as much as $376,000 in contributions, gifts and grants in 2000, falling to $76,000 in 2005.
Describing its mission as providing “social, educational and recreational activities in Israel,” the charity said has given thousands of dollars to buy school supplies and run camps for needy children in Israel as well as arranged recreational trips for residents of northern Israel who had been closeted in bomb shelters during recent hostilities. The 2003 tax return also lists a $51,200 gift that went toward “anti-terrorist campaigns.”
A woman named Helene Moshel, the maiden name of Mr. Talansky’s wife, is listed as the charity’s secretary on the 2006 return.
A registered Democrat, Mr. Talansky has been an active donor to many American candidates over the years on both sides of the aisle. He gave President Bush $1,000 in 2003, and had been a generous donor to Rudolph Giuliani in 2000, both Republicans. Among his Democratic beneficiaries have been President Bill Clinton in 1995, Thomas Foley in 1994 and Ted Kennedy in 1992.
Several relatives of Mr. Talansky in the United States who were reached on Monday and Tuesday by phone said they knew nothing about his predicament and were first hearing about it in the press. “He’s a very smart man, and a very generous man,” said Dr. Arthur Talansky, a nephew in Great Neck.
Relatives said he used his means and connections to support many charitable organizations in the Jewish world. “He’s not poor man, that I know,” said Rabbi Abraham Talansky, a cousin in Brooklyn. “He’s a man who could give $10,000, like nothing.”
The rabbi said he would be surprised to learn that his cousin was in any way a right-wing extremist eager to topple the centrist Israeli prime minister, one theory circulating in Israel. “He’s no extremist in any way,” said Rabbi Talansky.
One example of Mr. Talansky’s involvement in political and business affairs in Israel is a lawsuit he and other investors filed last year in federal court in New York against an Israeli satellite company that they had helped back. The suit asks for relief on the grounds that an Israeli-run defense manufacturer involved in the joint venture was putting diplomatic considerations ahead of business interests in its overseas marketing efforts.
Mr. Talansky and the other plaintiffs, a group that includes one member of the prominent Reichmann family of Canada, claimed that the satellite company was being barred from offering access to its satellite images to countries like Venezuela that might be viewed as hostile to Israeli national interests.
In an affidavit Mr. Talansky filed in court this January, he complained that he had personally sunk at least $500,000 into the joint venture back in 1998 and had helped raise “$5 million to $6 million more” from other individuals, not counting a $250,000 bridge loan he also made that year. Without the court’s help, he noted he would have “no viable remedy for defendants’ intentional unwinding and destruction of the company into which I was induced to indirectly invest.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/07/world/middleeast/07olmert.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin
By ALISON LEIGH COWAN
Published: May 7, 2008
A Long Island philanthropist and fundraiser for Israeli charities is at the center of an enveloping scandal around Israel’s prime minister, Ehud Olmert, that has riveted and agitated Israel despite a veil of secrecy over the ongoing investigation.
The man, Morris Talansky, 75, was apparently approached by the Israeli authorities when he arrived at the Tel Aviv airport expecting to spend Passover with his daughter and son, who live in Jerusalem. It is unclear if Mr. Talansky is only a witness or also a suspect in the case.
Israeli prosecutors asked a Jerusalem court on Tuesday for permission to take testimony from a foreign man, widely understood to be Mr. Talansky, even though prosecutors have yet to file any charges in the case. That probe appears to involve suspicion of bribery or campaign finance irregularities involving Mr. Olmert that took place in 1999. At that time, Mr. Olmert served as mayor of Jerusalem and was running against former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon for the leadership of the Likud party.
Police have imposed a strict gag order that forbids publication of information about the case in Israel. Mr. Talansky’s name and nationality have not been made public, but details of the investigation have circuclated among politicians and journalists there in recent days. The New York Post published his name on Tuesday, leading Israeli radio announcers to tell listeners to go to the newspaper’s web site without saying why.
Mr. Olmert has told his cabinet and associates that rumors that he took bribes and may be facing a legal morass that could topple him will prove baseless once the investigation is completed. But the speculation about his future has weakened him politically even as he undertakes delicate negotiations with Israel’s neighbors under pressure from the Bush administration. Opposition politicians say he should not negotiate with the Palestinians or send messages to the Syrians under such circumstances.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice just returned from Jerusalem and President Bush is due there next week as part of a concerted American push to close an Israeli-Palestinian peace framework by the end of Mr. Bush’s tenure.
The fundraising in 1999 that prompted the investigation into Mr. Olmert also led to campaign finance charges against people close to Mr. Sharon. His son, Omri Sharon, is serving a prison term as a result of that case.
Mr. Talansky, an Orthodox Jew who briefly led a congregation in Portland, Ore. in the 1950’s as a young rabbinical graduate of Yeshiva University, turned to business and philanthropy in his later career, when he lived mainly in the New York suburbs.
His first marriage to Miriam Kriger ended after forty years, and two of their three children moved to Israel. He and his current wife Helene live in the Woodsburgh section of Woodmere, in a nine-room, red-brick Colonial that he paid $1.175 million for in 2004. He also lists that as his business address, and lists himself as the chief executive, of Global Resources, an investment firm.
A man answering the Mr. Talansky’s phone on Monday said, “They’re not going to return your call,” and hung up the phone. No one responded to a knock on his front door on Tuesday.
Within Jewish circles, Mr. Talansky is best known for the years he spent as a fundraiser for the American Committee for Shaare Zedek Hospital in Jerusalem. A popular cause with American Jewry, the hospital’s American fundraising has raised tens of millions of dollars in recent years, including $20 million in 2002 alone, one of its best years, according to available tax returns.
Paul Glasser, the national director for the American organization, said Mr. Talansky had not worked for the charity since 1997. But the organization reported on its 2004 tax return that Mr. Talansky earned $90,000 that year as a consultant, a year that the organization pulled in $16 million from outside sources.
Tax records also show Mr. Talansky also served as the main contact and treasurer for the American branch of the New Jerusalem Foundation, a charity closely associated with Mr. Olmert that raises money for Israeli causes. The American branch got its tax exemption in the United States in 1999, when Mr. Olmert was mayor of Jerusalem.
According to the charity’s recent tax returns, it raised as much as $376,000 in contributions, gifts and grants in 2000, falling to $76,000 in 2005.
Describing its mission as providing “social, educational and recreational activities in Israel,” the charity said has given thousands of dollars to buy school supplies and run camps for needy children in Israel as well as arranged recreational trips for residents of northern Israel who had been closeted in bomb shelters during recent hostilities. The 2003 tax return also lists a $51,200 gift that went toward “anti-terrorist campaigns.”
A woman named Helene Moshel, the maiden name of Mr. Talansky’s wife, is listed as the charity’s secretary on the 2006 return.
A registered Democrat, Mr. Talansky has been an active donor to many American candidates over the years on both sides of the aisle. He gave President Bush $1,000 in 2003, and had been a generous donor to Rudolph Giuliani in 2000, both Republicans. Among his Democratic beneficiaries have been President Bill Clinton in 1995, Thomas Foley in 1994 and Ted Kennedy in 1992.
Several relatives of Mr. Talansky in the United States who were reached on Monday and Tuesday by phone said they knew nothing about his predicament and were first hearing about it in the press. “He’s a very smart man, and a very generous man,” said Dr. Arthur Talansky, a nephew in Great Neck.
Relatives said he used his means and connections to support many charitable organizations in the Jewish world. “He’s not poor man, that I know,” said Rabbi Abraham Talansky, a cousin in Brooklyn. “He’s a man who could give $10,000, like nothing.”
The rabbi said he would be surprised to learn that his cousin was in any way a right-wing extremist eager to topple the centrist Israeli prime minister, one theory circulating in Israel. “He’s no extremist in any way,” said Rabbi Talansky.
One example of Mr. Talansky’s involvement in political and business affairs in Israel is a lawsuit he and other investors filed last year in federal court in New York against an Israeli satellite company that they had helped back. The suit asks for relief on the grounds that an Israeli-run defense manufacturer involved in the joint venture was putting diplomatic considerations ahead of business interests in its overseas marketing efforts.
Mr. Talansky and the other plaintiffs, a group that includes one member of the prominent Reichmann family of Canada, claimed that the satellite company was being barred from offering access to its satellite images to countries like Venezuela that might be viewed as hostile to Israeli national interests.
In an affidavit Mr. Talansky filed in court this January, he complained that he had personally sunk at least $500,000 into the joint venture back in 1998 and had helped raise “$5 million to $6 million more” from other individuals, not counting a $250,000 bridge loan he also made that year. Without the court’s help, he noted he would have “no viable remedy for defendants’ intentional unwinding and destruction of the company into which I was induced to indirectly invest.”
Tzohar Rabbis Will Establish Hotline in Defense of Converts
B"H
In case you are lulled into the belief that the Druckman decision has not hurt anyone because of what Rabbi Amar has said against it, here is something to remind you.
This is a story about how the Tzohar Rabbis will "come to the aid of converts" in an effort to make sure they are not discriminated against when facing marriage, burial, divorce, etc. This is a beautiful thing the Tzohar Rabbis are doing, and I sincerely applaud them for their strong stance against the Rabbinical Court that issued the Druckman decision.
Sadly, however, these "converts" were Jews only a few days ago--people who needed no legion of rabbis coming to their aid to assist them. There was no question about their status and their rights. Now there is.
The entire Jewish nation has been harmed by this decision. Please tell me, please explain how a baby, adopted by a Jewish couple and converted by Druckman's conversion authority, has somehow failed their beit Din. Tell me how people who are living as Orthodox Jews, maybe even employed in "Jewish industries" like kashrut, are suddenly unkosher because of the intercession of three rabbis' decision?
I am still so rattled by this whole thing.
M
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May 6, 2008 22:26 | Updated May 6, 2008 22:40
Rabbis come to aid of converts
By MATTHEW WAGNER
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1209627027035&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
A group of religious Zionist rabbis decided Monday to set up a hotline to aid converts whose Jewishness might be called into question.
The move came after the High Rabbinical Court, in a decision that experts called unprecedented and highly controversial, retroactively annulled a woman's conversion and excoriated Rabbi Haim Druckman, the head of the National Conversion Authority. The decision could have far-reaching ramifications for hundreds of others who converted through Druckman.
Chief Sephardi Rabbi Shlomo Amar, who is also president of the High Rabbinical Court, attempted to ameliorate the situation by publicly announcing that the conversions would be recognized and that Druckman was kosher.
However, hundreds of converts, who have been living for years as Jews, were staggered by the High Court ruling and are now concerned that they and their offspring will not be recognized by religious institutions in Israel as Jews.
Since all marriages among Jews are carried out by the Chief Rabbinate, the high court decision could prevent hundreds of converts and their children from getting married.
In addition, rabbinical divorce courts, the only statutory body empowered to annul marriages, might not demand a writ of divorce in cases where a convert married a Jew. In Jewish law, the marriage of a gentile and a Jew is not formally recognized.
On Monday, Tzohar rabbis decided to create a hotline and provide rabbis who could defend converts before marriage registrars and rabbinical courts.
Many of the converts are either children adopted abroad who were required to undergo a conversion as part of their Israeli naturalization process, or immigrants from the former Soviet Union who came to Israel under the Law of Return but who are not Jewish according to Orthodox Jewish law.
"We plan to publicize [the hotline] in the Russia-language media," said Rabbi Rafi Feuerstein, chairman of Tzohar, who stressed that his organization would not do anything against the law.
"We want to send out a message to converts that they are not alone. They should also know that Rabbi Amar has promised to recognize them as full-fledged Jews," he said. "The Talmud says that the rabbinic court is the father of the convert. So we are just trying to fulfill our religious duty."
Another organization that has come to the aid of converts affected by the rabbinical court decision is ITIM, a nonprofit headed by Rabbi Shaul Farber that helps converts navigate the bureaucracies of the religious establishment.
In case you are lulled into the belief that the Druckman decision has not hurt anyone because of what Rabbi Amar has said against it, here is something to remind you.
This is a story about how the Tzohar Rabbis will "come to the aid of converts" in an effort to make sure they are not discriminated against when facing marriage, burial, divorce, etc. This is a beautiful thing the Tzohar Rabbis are doing, and I sincerely applaud them for their strong stance against the Rabbinical Court that issued the Druckman decision.
Sadly, however, these "converts" were Jews only a few days ago--people who needed no legion of rabbis coming to their aid to assist them. There was no question about their status and their rights. Now there is.
The entire Jewish nation has been harmed by this decision. Please tell me, please explain how a baby, adopted by a Jewish couple and converted by Druckman's conversion authority, has somehow failed their beit Din. Tell me how people who are living as Orthodox Jews, maybe even employed in "Jewish industries" like kashrut, are suddenly unkosher because of the intercession of three rabbis' decision?
I am still so rattled by this whole thing.
M
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May 6, 2008 22:26 | Updated May 6, 2008 22:40
Rabbis come to aid of converts
By MATTHEW WAGNER
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1209627027035&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
A group of religious Zionist rabbis decided Monday to set up a hotline to aid converts whose Jewishness might be called into question.
The move came after the High Rabbinical Court, in a decision that experts called unprecedented and highly controversial, retroactively annulled a woman's conversion and excoriated Rabbi Haim Druckman, the head of the National Conversion Authority. The decision could have far-reaching ramifications for hundreds of others who converted through Druckman.
Chief Sephardi Rabbi Shlomo Amar, who is also president of the High Rabbinical Court, attempted to ameliorate the situation by publicly announcing that the conversions would be recognized and that Druckman was kosher.
However, hundreds of converts, who have been living for years as Jews, were staggered by the High Court ruling and are now concerned that they and their offspring will not be recognized by religious institutions in Israel as Jews.
Since all marriages among Jews are carried out by the Chief Rabbinate, the high court decision could prevent hundreds of converts and their children from getting married.
In addition, rabbinical divorce courts, the only statutory body empowered to annul marriages, might not demand a writ of divorce in cases where a convert married a Jew. In Jewish law, the marriage of a gentile and a Jew is not formally recognized.
On Monday, Tzohar rabbis decided to create a hotline and provide rabbis who could defend converts before marriage registrars and rabbinical courts.
Many of the converts are either children adopted abroad who were required to undergo a conversion as part of their Israeli naturalization process, or immigrants from the former Soviet Union who came to Israel under the Law of Return but who are not Jewish according to Orthodox Jewish law.
"We plan to publicize [the hotline] in the Russia-language media," said Rabbi Rafi Feuerstein, chairman of Tzohar, who stressed that his organization would not do anything against the law.
"We want to send out a message to converts that they are not alone. They should also know that Rabbi Amar has promised to recognize them as full-fledged Jews," he said. "The Talmud says that the rabbinic court is the father of the convert. So we are just trying to fulfill our religious duty."
Another organization that has come to the aid of converts affected by the rabbinical court decision is ITIM, a nonprofit headed by Rabbi Shaul Farber that helps converts navigate the bureaucracies of the religious establishment.
Some thoughts during the siren
Yom ha-Zikkaron 5768:
by Daniel Pinner
…And as the siren echoes through the calm evening air of the Samarian hills, the faces swim before my eyes. The faces of friends who did not return to base with me, the friends who will never return home. The landscape blurs in my eyes; once again I see Baruch, who was born in the Soviet Union. We were in the same platoon; I lived in Jerusalem, he lived in Beit Shemesh, and more times than I can recall, we hitchhiked home together from the Negev Desert, from the Golan, from Lebanon. Baruch (he hated being called Boris, the name that was still on his te’udat zehut, a throw-back to his unhappy past) and I often played chess together – in fact, when we had an informal platoon chess championship, he and I were the joint winners. We were level, having won two games each; the fifth one was to be the tie-breaker. Baruch will never play that fifth game, and we will be forever joint chess champions of A Platoon.
And I recall Rachamim, who I spent hours trying to teach English to. He had begun to realise how important an education was, and wanted to go back to school after the Army, to matriculate, and go on to university. He needed English, and those long patrols together were ideal for learning. We would talk in English, and then I would give him simple written assignments – sentences in Hebrew for him to translate into English; when I would find the time I would mark them. His English improved amazingly, until the day he went on patrol; the previous day I had been on the jeep, this time was his turn. He jumped on to the jeep, turned his sunburnt, rugged face to me, and called out, in his atrocious accent, “You find my paperrr on my bed. I sink I do betterrr zis time. Tell me when I getting beck.”
Those were the last words he ever said to me: he came back from that patrol in south Lebanon on a stretcher, and never recovered consciousness.
And the faces of friends who were murdered by terrorists swim before my eyes, drifting in and out of focus. The face of my friend and mentor, Rabbi Binyamin Ze’ev Kahane Hy”d and his wife Taliya Hy”d, murdered by Arab terrorists as they were driving home on a bright Sunday morning eight years ago. Amihud Hassid Hy”d, who died preventing an Arab suicide terrorist from approaching the petrol station in Ariel. Gila Hy”d, whose voice and smile are forever seared in my heart, whose soul is bound up with my soul, who was murdered at the hitch-hiking station in Jerusalem, and now waits for Mashiach in the cemetery of Eli.
Just a handful of soldiers out of 22,437 who have died defending our country, a few of the 1,634 civilians who have been murdered by Arab terrorists. This is the price of freedom. This is the price for being responsible for our own destiny.
Sixty years ago, when Israel was born in the crucible of fire, my mother z”l fought in the Gadn”a – the g’dud no’ar, the youth battalion of the Haganah. She conquered Sheikh Munis, the village today called Ramat Aviv Gimmel, home of extreme leftists like Shimon Peres, the Rabin family, Shulamit Aloni, and others who call me an “occupier” because I live in Samaria.
I think of the price of freedom, of independence. And then I think of the price of not having freedom. In the four years of the First World War, 1,500,000 Jews fought in the battlefields scattered across the world; 140,000 died. 320,000 Jews served the Austro-Hungarian Empire alone. My grandfather z”l, a pious Jew and a proud Austrian, volunteered to fight for his country, and became an officer in the Cavalry. He asked to be transferred away from the front lines when, facing the Russian trenches, he shot at an enemy soldier; in the darkness, he saw the figure convulse, and heard the dying scream, Shema Yisra’el…. Such is the price of not having our independence in our own Land.
40,000 Jews died fighting for Austria-Hungary in the First World War, and another 12,000 for Germany. A generation later, we saw how these countries repaid their loyalty. Such is the price of not having our independence in our own Land.
…And as the siren dies away, the hills of Samaria drift back into focus. The country is starting to move once again. We have paid the price of not having our independence in our own Land; for 2,000 years we paid that price.
Baruch and I will never play that final chess game; Motti and I will never learn the final chapter of Tractate Megillah together. There are friends who will never come home, who will be twenty forever. They, and those who love them, have paid in full the price for our independence in our Land.
by Daniel Pinner
…And as the siren echoes through the calm evening air of the Samarian hills, the faces swim before my eyes. The faces of friends who did not return to base with me, the friends who will never return home. The landscape blurs in my eyes; once again I see Baruch, who was born in the Soviet Union. We were in the same platoon; I lived in Jerusalem, he lived in Beit Shemesh, and more times than I can recall, we hitchhiked home together from the Negev Desert, from the Golan, from Lebanon. Baruch (he hated being called Boris, the name that was still on his te’udat zehut, a throw-back to his unhappy past) and I often played chess together – in fact, when we had an informal platoon chess championship, he and I were the joint winners. We were level, having won two games each; the fifth one was to be the tie-breaker. Baruch will never play that fifth game, and we will be forever joint chess champions of A Platoon.
And I recall Rachamim, who I spent hours trying to teach English to. He had begun to realise how important an education was, and wanted to go back to school after the Army, to matriculate, and go on to university. He needed English, and those long patrols together were ideal for learning. We would talk in English, and then I would give him simple written assignments – sentences in Hebrew for him to translate into English; when I would find the time I would mark them. His English improved amazingly, until the day he went on patrol; the previous day I had been on the jeep, this time was his turn. He jumped on to the jeep, turned his sunburnt, rugged face to me, and called out, in his atrocious accent, “You find my paperrr on my bed. I sink I do betterrr zis time. Tell me when I getting beck.”
Those were the last words he ever said to me: he came back from that patrol in south Lebanon on a stretcher, and never recovered consciousness.
And the faces of friends who were murdered by terrorists swim before my eyes, drifting in and out of focus. The face of my friend and mentor, Rabbi Binyamin Ze’ev Kahane Hy”d and his wife Taliya Hy”d, murdered by Arab terrorists as they were driving home on a bright Sunday morning eight years ago. Amihud Hassid Hy”d, who died preventing an Arab suicide terrorist from approaching the petrol station in Ariel. Gila Hy”d, whose voice and smile are forever seared in my heart, whose soul is bound up with my soul, who was murdered at the hitch-hiking station in Jerusalem, and now waits for Mashiach in the cemetery of Eli.
Just a handful of soldiers out of 22,437 who have died defending our country, a few of the 1,634 civilians who have been murdered by Arab terrorists. This is the price of freedom. This is the price for being responsible for our own destiny.
Sixty years ago, when Israel was born in the crucible of fire, my mother z”l fought in the Gadn”a – the g’dud no’ar, the youth battalion of the Haganah. She conquered Sheikh Munis, the village today called Ramat Aviv Gimmel, home of extreme leftists like Shimon Peres, the Rabin family, Shulamit Aloni, and others who call me an “occupier” because I live in Samaria.
I think of the price of freedom, of independence. And then I think of the price of not having freedom. In the four years of the First World War, 1,500,000 Jews fought in the battlefields scattered across the world; 140,000 died. 320,000 Jews served the Austro-Hungarian Empire alone. My grandfather z”l, a pious Jew and a proud Austrian, volunteered to fight for his country, and became an officer in the Cavalry. He asked to be transferred away from the front lines when, facing the Russian trenches, he shot at an enemy soldier; in the darkness, he saw the figure convulse, and heard the dying scream, Shema Yisra’el…. Such is the price of not having our independence in our own Land.
40,000 Jews died fighting for Austria-Hungary in the First World War, and another 12,000 for Germany. A generation later, we saw how these countries repaid their loyalty. Such is the price of not having our independence in our own Land.
…And as the siren dies away, the hills of Samaria drift back into focus. The country is starting to move once again. We have paid the price of not having our independence in our own Land; for 2,000 years we paid that price.
Baruch and I will never play that final chess game; Motti and I will never learn the final chapter of Tractate Megillah together. There are friends who will never come home, who will be twenty forever. They, and those who love them, have paid in full the price for our independence in our Land.
Tzohar Rabbis Push Back, Defend Druckman
B"H
When the British established the position of the Chief Rabbi, the Haredim refused to be a part of the process--stating that they wanted to maintain their own religious courts. What are they doing now, meddling in the business of the Rabbinate? They can't have their cake and eat it too!
I say, if they want to participate in the Religious Courts under the Rabbinate, then the Haredim have to go by those courts and give up their own courts. They cannot push their agendas upon the rest of Israel by trying to take over our courts while still maintaining their own.
Clearly, these judges are not deciding this case on the basis of any known halacha, and they are pushing an extreme interpretation of Joseph Caro's phrase "Quabbalat Mitzvot" to the Nth degree to serve their own anti-Zionist policies.
I'm glad the Tzohar Rabbis are fighting back on Druckman's behalf. We need a bit more of this before our entire tradition is coopted and desecrated by those who would twist it to their own devices.
M
-----
Conversion conflict - a Zionism issue
Matthew Wagner , THE JERUSALEM POST May. 5, 2008
http://www.jpost.com /servlet/Satellite?cid=1209627019789&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
A nasty legalistic brawl that casts in doubt the Jewishness of hundreds of converts to Judaism is really a clash of political ideologies vis-a-vis Zionism, rabbis on both sides of the fray said Monday.
The clash between rabbis who see the creation of the State of Israel as a positive sign from God signaling a step closer to final redemption and those who reject any religious implications resulting from the renewal of Jewish sovereignty comes as Israelis prepare to celebrate the 60th anniversary of their independence on Thursday.
Last week, a panel of three haredi, non-Zionist rabbis belonging to the High Rabbinical Court, the state's highest rabbinic institution, caused an upheaval in the Orthodox rabbinical world after publishing a caustically incriminating indictment of the head of Israel's Conversion Authority, Rabbi Haim Druckman, who is a religious Zionist.
The haredi judges' decision effectively annulled retroactively hundreds, and perhaps thousands, of conversions performed between 1999 and 2003 by Druckman.
Rabbi Avraham Sherman, the haredi rabbinic judge who wrote the decision, accused Druckman of forging documents to make it seem as if he were present at dozens of conversions when, in actuality, he was represented by proxy.
But Sherman's main thrust was an attack on Druckman and other judges in the Conversion Authority, the vast majority of whom are religious Zionists, who saw the endeavor of mass conversion in Israel as a "national goal".
"All these rabbis have one thing in common," Sherman wrote, referring to rabbis serving on state-run conversion courts.
"They all see in conversion a sacred commandment as part of their national responsibility ... in other words, the conversion is not primarily the spiritual and religious need of the individual convert who wishes to join the Jewish people and accept upon himself all the commandments. Rather, conversion is a means of improving the spiritual situation of the entire Jewish nation living in Israel. It is a way of bringing Jews closer to their Judaism.
"But, in reality, for dozens of years now the vast majority of converts via the Conversion Authority remain gentile in their behavior, except for the performance of rituals, which remain for these converts empty of spiritual content. These converts see themselves as belonging to the Jewish people solely in a patriotic, nationalistic way, without any religiously significant feelings of belonging. Therefore, these [conversion court] rabbis should be seen as intentional transgressors of Jewish law."
Rabbi Yuval Cherlow, a member of Tzohar Rabbis, a group of religious Zionist spiritual leaders, said Sherman's arguments proved that the historical processes that brought the Jewish people back to the Land of Israel had no religious significance for him.
"Since the creation of the State of Israel rabbis have argued over its theological significance," he said.
"Should we see the creation of the State of Israel as the return of the people to its rightful land as part of a larger eschatological process, as religious Zionists believe, or is it just a bunch of individual Jews who happen to have landed in the Holy Land together by coincidence, as the haredim believe."
A senior member of the Conversion Authority, who preferred to remain anonymous, said conversions serve the national interest and are, therefore, a mitzvah.
"We are talking about a group of people who ended up in Israel because they have some sort of connection with the Jewish people," the source said.
"Their mother may not be Jewish, which makes them gentile according to Halacha. But their father is Jewish, or one of their grandparents is Jewish or they are married to a Jew. As a result, they are considered "of the seed of Israel."
"In addition, they totally identify as Jews. They do not see themselves as gentiles. They serve in the IDF, they are patriotic, they are Zionistic. We have a duty to bring them closer to the Jewish people."
The source also pointed out that if the approximately 300,000 non-Jews who immigrated to Israel under the Law of Return are not converted, there will be intermarriage and assimilation.
"The haredim are not part of any of Israel's national endeavors because they do not see any religious value in the creation of the State of Israel. That's why they don't serve in the IDF and they don't identify with Zionism. They also don't think their children, who are brought up in isolated communities, will ever marry non-Jewish immigrants or their offspring. But I think they are wrong."
Rabbi Dr. Jeffrey Woolf, a senior lecturer of Talmud at Bar Ilan, said that Sherman's decision was unprecedented in halachic literature.
"I would hope that Sherman was making a principled argument in terms of the need for converts to accept upon themselves adherence to Orthodox Jewish law [kabbalat mitzvot]," said Woolf. "But Sherman's across-the-board disqualification of rabbis and Torah scholars... That, to my knowledge, in the field of halachic literature is unprecedented."
Woolf called Sherman's dispute with religious Zionists a dissent in the field of religious policy, not ideology.
"A certain religious policy may lead a halachic decisor to lean in a certain direction. That is also what pushed Sherman to excoriate rabbis who hold the position that the broader needs of the Jewish people are a halachic consideration.
"I just hope this controversy will be solved, because we are talking about an issue that could make or break Jewish unity. I am not saying to give up on principles. But we are not only playing with people's individual status, but also with the life and death of the state of Israel, because maintaining Jewish unity is our most important source of strength."
When the British established the position of the Chief Rabbi, the Haredim refused to be a part of the process--stating that they wanted to maintain their own religious courts. What are they doing now, meddling in the business of the Rabbinate? They can't have their cake and eat it too!
I say, if they want to participate in the Religious Courts under the Rabbinate, then the Haredim have to go by those courts and give up their own courts. They cannot push their agendas upon the rest of Israel by trying to take over our courts while still maintaining their own.
Clearly, these judges are not deciding this case on the basis of any known halacha, and they are pushing an extreme interpretation of Joseph Caro's phrase "Quabbalat Mitzvot" to the Nth degree to serve their own anti-Zionist policies.
I'm glad the Tzohar Rabbis are fighting back on Druckman's behalf. We need a bit more of this before our entire tradition is coopted and desecrated by those who would twist it to their own devices.
M
-----
Conversion conflict - a Zionism issue
Matthew Wagner , THE JERUSALEM POST May. 5, 2008
http://www.jpost.com /servlet/Satellite?cid=1209627019789&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
A nasty legalistic brawl that casts in doubt the Jewishness of hundreds of converts to Judaism is really a clash of political ideologies vis-a-vis Zionism, rabbis on both sides of the fray said Monday.
The clash between rabbis who see the creation of the State of Israel as a positive sign from God signaling a step closer to final redemption and those who reject any religious implications resulting from the renewal of Jewish sovereignty comes as Israelis prepare to celebrate the 60th anniversary of their independence on Thursday.
Last week, a panel of three haredi, non-Zionist rabbis belonging to the High Rabbinical Court, the state's highest rabbinic institution, caused an upheaval in the Orthodox rabbinical world after publishing a caustically incriminating indictment of the head of Israel's Conversion Authority, Rabbi Haim Druckman, who is a religious Zionist.
The haredi judges' decision effectively annulled retroactively hundreds, and perhaps thousands, of conversions performed between 1999 and 2003 by Druckman.
Rabbi Avraham Sherman, the haredi rabbinic judge who wrote the decision, accused Druckman of forging documents to make it seem as if he were present at dozens of conversions when, in actuality, he was represented by proxy.
But Sherman's main thrust was an attack on Druckman and other judges in the Conversion Authority, the vast majority of whom are religious Zionists, who saw the endeavor of mass conversion in Israel as a "national goal".
"All these rabbis have one thing in common," Sherman wrote, referring to rabbis serving on state-run conversion courts.
"They all see in conversion a sacred commandment as part of their national responsibility ... in other words, the conversion is not primarily the spiritual and religious need of the individual convert who wishes to join the Jewish people and accept upon himself all the commandments. Rather, conversion is a means of improving the spiritual situation of the entire Jewish nation living in Israel. It is a way of bringing Jews closer to their Judaism.
"But, in reality, for dozens of years now the vast majority of converts via the Conversion Authority remain gentile in their behavior, except for the performance of rituals, which remain for these converts empty of spiritual content. These converts see themselves as belonging to the Jewish people solely in a patriotic, nationalistic way, without any religiously significant feelings of belonging. Therefore, these [conversion court] rabbis should be seen as intentional transgressors of Jewish law."
Rabbi Yuval Cherlow, a member of Tzohar Rabbis, a group of religious Zionist spiritual leaders, said Sherman's arguments proved that the historical processes that brought the Jewish people back to the Land of Israel had no religious significance for him.
"Since the creation of the State of Israel rabbis have argued over its theological significance," he said.
"Should we see the creation of the State of Israel as the return of the people to its rightful land as part of a larger eschatological process, as religious Zionists believe, or is it just a bunch of individual Jews who happen to have landed in the Holy Land together by coincidence, as the haredim believe."
A senior member of the Conversion Authority, who preferred to remain anonymous, said conversions serve the national interest and are, therefore, a mitzvah.
"We are talking about a group of people who ended up in Israel because they have some sort of connection with the Jewish people," the source said.
"Their mother may not be Jewish, which makes them gentile according to Halacha. But their father is Jewish, or one of their grandparents is Jewish or they are married to a Jew. As a result, they are considered "of the seed of Israel."
"In addition, they totally identify as Jews. They do not see themselves as gentiles. They serve in the IDF, they are patriotic, they are Zionistic. We have a duty to bring them closer to the Jewish people."
The source also pointed out that if the approximately 300,000 non-Jews who immigrated to Israel under the Law of Return are not converted, there will be intermarriage and assimilation.
"The haredim are not part of any of Israel's national endeavors because they do not see any religious value in the creation of the State of Israel. That's why they don't serve in the IDF and they don't identify with Zionism. They also don't think their children, who are brought up in isolated communities, will ever marry non-Jewish immigrants or their offspring. But I think they are wrong."
Rabbi Dr. Jeffrey Woolf, a senior lecturer of Talmud at Bar Ilan, said that Sherman's decision was unprecedented in halachic literature.
"I would hope that Sherman was making a principled argument in terms of the need for converts to accept upon themselves adherence to Orthodox Jewish law [kabbalat mitzvot]," said Woolf. "But Sherman's across-the-board disqualification of rabbis and Torah scholars... That, to my knowledge, in the field of halachic literature is unprecedented."
Woolf called Sherman's dispute with religious Zionists a dissent in the field of religious policy, not ideology.
"A certain religious policy may lead a halachic decisor to lean in a certain direction. That is also what pushed Sherman to excoriate rabbis who hold the position that the broader needs of the Jewish people are a halachic consideration.
"I just hope this controversy will be solved, because we are talking about an issue that could make or break Jewish unity. I am not saying to give up on principles. But we are not only playing with people's individual status, but also with the life and death of the state of Israel, because maintaining Jewish unity is our most important source of strength."
UN School's Science Teacher Moonlighted as Bomb Maker
B”H
I know that it always helps to have a science teacher that has practical experience using science in the real world—but this is a bit extreme.
I hope his moonlighting activity was not reflected in his lessons to the boys . . .but I have a feeling it was. How many of his students are now going to be working as the next generation of bomb-builders for jihad?
And, as far as the UN goes—their reputation was already shot. We know what goes on in their “apolitical” institutions of learning. These schools are places where terrorists hang out, where they seek refuge, and now, it appears, where they learn their trade.
Spare us the violins, please. The UN’s mask has long been off, and we have seen the real face of hatred under it’s sequin and feather-festooned “peace” efforts.
M
-----
UN Gaza Boys' School Headmaster Made Terrorist Bombs
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/126080
by Hillel Fendel
(IsraelNN.com) Reuters reports that a terrorist killed in an IAF air strike last week, Awad al-Qiq, actually lived a double life: By day, he was a respected headmaster and science teacher at a United Nations school, but during the night, he built rockets for Islamic Jihad.
The news agency reports that Israel's air strike in southern Gaza last Wednesday not only revealed Al-Qiq's double life, but also "embarrassed a U.N. agency which has long had to rebuff Israeli accusations that it has aided and abetted guerrillas fighting the Jewish state."
Though his family, students, colleagues, and U.N. officials denied knowledge of Qiq's work with explosives, Hamas terrorists hailed him as a martyr who led Islamic Jihad's bomb-making unit. They fired a barrage of Kassam rockets into Israel in response to his death.
A spokesman for UNRWA - the UN Relief and Works Agency, which runs the school in which Qiq taught - told Reuters that it was looking into the matter. "We have a zero-tolerance policy towards politics and militant activities in our schools," he said. "Obviously, we are not the thought police and we cannot police people's minds."
Air Force Eliminates Gaza Terrorist
Arabs from Gaza report that a member of the Hamas military wing, Hisham Shomar, was killed in an Israel Air Force strike early Tuesday morning. Three terrorists were reported wounded. The IDF confirmed the attack on armed terrorists, part of a cell that fired mortar shells at Israel from northern Gaza.
Israel on the Alert: 11 Specific Warnings
In honor of Memorial Day and Independence Day, which fall on Wednesday and Thursday this week, the Defense Ministry has imposed a full closure on the Arabs of Judea and Samaria. The checkpoints will be opened for humanitarian cases.
Israeli intelligence has received 11 specific warnings of intended terrorist attacks, and is on the alert in light of the terrorists' desire to carry out a major attack on Independence Day. The specific warnings cover suicide attacks, shootings, attempted kidnappings, and rocket firings, chiefly from northern Shomron and Gaza. Dozens of "general terrorist warnings" have been received as well.
Kassams Hit Israel
Terrorists from Gaza fired one or two Kassam rockets at Israel on Tuesday, hitting open areas in the Negev.
I know that it always helps to have a science teacher that has practical experience using science in the real world—but this is a bit extreme.
I hope his moonlighting activity was not reflected in his lessons to the boys . . .but I have a feeling it was. How many of his students are now going to be working as the next generation of bomb-builders for jihad?
And, as far as the UN goes—their reputation was already shot. We know what goes on in their “apolitical” institutions of learning. These schools are places where terrorists hang out, where they seek refuge, and now, it appears, where they learn their trade.
Spare us the violins, please. The UN’s mask has long been off, and we have seen the real face of hatred under it’s sequin and feather-festooned “peace” efforts.
M
-----
UN Gaza Boys' School Headmaster Made Terrorist Bombs
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/126080
by Hillel Fendel
(IsraelNN.com) Reuters reports that a terrorist killed in an IAF air strike last week, Awad al-Qiq, actually lived a double life: By day, he was a respected headmaster and science teacher at a United Nations school, but during the night, he built rockets for Islamic Jihad.
The news agency reports that Israel's air strike in southern Gaza last Wednesday not only revealed Al-Qiq's double life, but also "embarrassed a U.N. agency which has long had to rebuff Israeli accusations that it has aided and abetted guerrillas fighting the Jewish state."
Though his family, students, colleagues, and U.N. officials denied knowledge of Qiq's work with explosives, Hamas terrorists hailed him as a martyr who led Islamic Jihad's bomb-making unit. They fired a barrage of Kassam rockets into Israel in response to his death.
A spokesman for UNRWA - the UN Relief and Works Agency, which runs the school in which Qiq taught - told Reuters that it was looking into the matter. "We have a zero-tolerance policy towards politics and militant activities in our schools," he said. "Obviously, we are not the thought police and we cannot police people's minds."
Air Force Eliminates Gaza Terrorist
Arabs from Gaza report that a member of the Hamas military wing, Hisham Shomar, was killed in an Israel Air Force strike early Tuesday morning. Three terrorists were reported wounded. The IDF confirmed the attack on armed terrorists, part of a cell that fired mortar shells at Israel from northern Gaza.
Israel on the Alert: 11 Specific Warnings
In honor of Memorial Day and Independence Day, which fall on Wednesday and Thursday this week, the Defense Ministry has imposed a full closure on the Arabs of Judea and Samaria. The checkpoints will be opened for humanitarian cases.
Israeli intelligence has received 11 specific warnings of intended terrorist attacks, and is on the alert in light of the terrorists' desire to carry out a major attack on Independence Day. The specific warnings cover suicide attacks, shootings, attempted kidnappings, and rocket firings, chiefly from northern Shomron and Gaza. Dozens of "general terrorist warnings" have been received as well.
Kassams Hit Israel
Terrorists from Gaza fired one or two Kassam rockets at Israel on Tuesday, hitting open areas in the Negev.
REVEALED: BIZMAN WHO MIGHT TOPPLE OLMERT
B"H
Well, now we know who and when. We just need to find out why . . .
M
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ISRAEL SCANDAL'S LI LINK
By KATE SHEEHY
http://www.nypost.com/seven/05062008/news/regionalnews/israel_scandals_li_link_109573.htm
May 6, 2008 -- A Long Island mogul is at the center of a sensational bribery scandal that could bring down embattled Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, The Post has learned.
Millionaire financier Morris Talansky - who runs an investment firm out of his tony home in Woodmere - allegedly passed money to Olmert while the politician was mayor of Jerusalem in the '90s, sources said.
In a highly unusual move, Israeli authorities have barred the country's media from publishing Talansky's name - revealed now in The Post - saying it could hamper their investigation. Israeli media has referred only to the involvement of an "American businessman."
Talansky is apparently set to sing to Israeli authorities about his alleged role in the scheme, sources said.
"It looks serious, and it looks like they have a state witness" in Talansky, one source said.
Talansky - a philanthropist and political contributor to everyone from Rudy Giuliani to Bill Clinton - is in Jerusalem, where he has an apartment, preparing to head to a closed-door court hearing as early as today, sources said.
The 75-year-old was earlier questioned about the alleged scheme almost immediately after arriving in the country for Passover, and he implicated Olmert, sources have said.
It was unclear what the alleged payments to Olmert were for, but sources said they involved hefty amounts of cash.
Talansky repeatedly appears - sometimes under the nickname "The Laundry Man" - in the logs of financial dealings kept by Olmert's longtime aide, Shula Zakan, a source said.
Olmert was grilled by investigators Friday. He has vehemently denied any wrongdoing.
The allegations are only the latest in a string of woes for Olmert, who has battled past charges of government corruption and questionable personal business practices.
"But this time seems very serious, and it seems eventually, we don't know if it will be days, weeks or months, in the end, he may not be able to continue to be prime minister," one source said.
A man answering the phone at Talansky's multimillion-dollar mansion in Woodmere yesterday said, "He's not available."
Talansky lists himself as CEO of the Global Resources Group, a self-described financial-investment firm.
Additional reporting by Kieran Crowley
Well, now we know who and when. We just need to find out why . . .
M
-----
ISRAEL SCANDAL'S LI LINK
By KATE SHEEHY
http://www.nypost.com/seven/05062008/news/regionalnews/israel_scandals_li_link_109573.htm
May 6, 2008 -- A Long Island mogul is at the center of a sensational bribery scandal that could bring down embattled Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, The Post has learned.
Millionaire financier Morris Talansky - who runs an investment firm out of his tony home in Woodmere - allegedly passed money to Olmert while the politician was mayor of Jerusalem in the '90s, sources said.
In a highly unusual move, Israeli authorities have barred the country's media from publishing Talansky's name - revealed now in The Post - saying it could hamper their investigation. Israeli media has referred only to the involvement of an "American businessman."
Talansky is apparently set to sing to Israeli authorities about his alleged role in the scheme, sources said.
"It looks serious, and it looks like they have a state witness" in Talansky, one source said.
Talansky - a philanthropist and political contributor to everyone from Rudy Giuliani to Bill Clinton - is in Jerusalem, where he has an apartment, preparing to head to a closed-door court hearing as early as today, sources said.
The 75-year-old was earlier questioned about the alleged scheme almost immediately after arriving in the country for Passover, and he implicated Olmert, sources have said.
It was unclear what the alleged payments to Olmert were for, but sources said they involved hefty amounts of cash.
Talansky repeatedly appears - sometimes under the nickname "The Laundry Man" - in the logs of financial dealings kept by Olmert's longtime aide, Shula Zakan, a source said.
Olmert was grilled by investigators Friday. He has vehemently denied any wrongdoing.
The allegations are only the latest in a string of woes for Olmert, who has battled past charges of government corruption and questionable personal business practices.
"But this time seems very serious, and it seems eventually, we don't know if it will be days, weeks or months, in the end, he may not be able to continue to be prime minister," one source said.
A man answering the phone at Talansky's multimillion-dollar mansion in Woodmere yesterday said, "He's not available."
Talansky lists himself as CEO of the Global Resources Group, a self-described financial-investment firm.
Additional reporting by Kieran Crowley
Monday, May 5, 2008
Chief Rabbi: Decision to Overturn Conversions Won't Stand
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/126074
by Hillel Fendel
(IsraelNN.com) Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar has assured government ministers that the recent Chief Rabbinical High Court decision to overturn recent conversions to Judaism will have no effect. His basis for such a sweeping statement is unclear.
A leading religious-Zionist rabbi bitterly castigated the High Court's ruling, and said he would work immediately to form an alternative to the Chief Rabbinate's conversion courts if it is not overturned (see below).
It was reported late last week that the Rabbinate's High Court had overturned a specific conversion of a woman who apparently never lived a religious Jewish lifestyle, as required by Jewish Law. In addition, the Court ruled all the conversions performed in the last several years by Rabbi Chaim Druckman, the head of the Conversion Administration, were hereby null and void. The number of people directed affected by this decision is unknown, but could be in the thousands.
Rabbi Cherlow: The ruling stands in total opposition to Jewish Law, embarrasses and shames a great Rabbi, violates the Torah's commands not to cause sorrow to converts, and deals a terrible blow to the fight against intermarriage.
At the heart of the matter is a halakhic [Jewish legal] dispute that has largely been drawn along hareidi-religious and national-religious lines. Both disagree with the minority Halakhic opinion that a convert need not affirm his intention to observe the Torah's commandments; they rather demand that the prospective convert display sincere intention to observe a religious lifestyle. They disagree, however, as to how to implement this requirement.
One school says that if a convert appears to be sincere in his desire to be a religious Jew when he appears before the rabbinical court, the judges may suffice with this and allow the conversion. In addition, they need not check up later on his "progress."
The more hareidi school of thought is that if a convert is later seen to be living a non-religious lifestyle, this renders the conversion invalid almost automatically.
Judges Revoke Hundreds of Conversions, or More
The three judges of the High Rabbinical Court, representing the second approach, abruptly revoked the Jewishness of the woman in question in the specifica case at hand. In addition, they found irregularities in the way Rabbi Druckman - who represented the more lenient approach - carried out his court's conversions, and blanketly revoked all of them.
Rabbi Druckman has a sterling reputation among his many thousands of students, and regularly remains awake until after 1 in the morning in order to meet with and help the many people who need him. For decades, he maintained a harrowing schedule as the founder and head of the Yeshivat Or Etzion institutions (including a military yeshiva high school), father to nine children, head of the nationwide Yeshivot Bnei Akiva umbrella organization, teacher in Yeshivat Merkaz HaRav, Knesset Member, advisor and helper to uncounted people who turned to him at all hours of the day, and more.
Rabbi Amar: No Need to Worry
Rabbi Amar - who, as the Sephardic Chief Rabbi, has ultimate authority for the courts under him - was angered at the decision. He tried to control the damage on Monday by assuring Absorption Minister Yaakov Edry that new immigrants who had converted under Rabbi Druckman would not be affected by the ruling. Rabbi Amar said that the issue never should have been judged in that forum, and that he would make sure to have it officially overturned.
Edry had said that the ruling had dealt a death blow to the entire system of conversion in Israel, as well as to the motivation of Israeli non-Jews - mostly Russian immigrants - to begin the conversion process.
Rabbi Amar and Minister Edry agreed that the issue of conversion is a matter of top national priority, and that all those involved must contribute to the national effort towards the full integration of new immigrants into the Jewish nation and Israeli society.
Orlev: Sharply Against Ruling
Rabbi Amar also met with MK Zevulun Orlev, the head of the National Religious Party, who had taken a sharp stance against the Chief Rabbinate's decision. Orlev expressed satisfaction with Rabbi Amar's promise to overturn the ruling, but said, "He must not only say it, but must do it... The goal is that the [conversion] courts must be convert-friendly, ruling in keeping with a national and Zionist approach."
A leading Conversion Authority figure told Arutz-7 that he does not believe the ruling will be able to withstand a Supreme Court appeal, "as the High Rabbinical Court probably does not have ultimate authority over the Conversion Courts in the Chief Rabbinate." This is likely to be put to the test, as an appeal to the Supreme Court is likely.
Rabbi Cherlow's Attack
Rabbi Yuval Cherlow, a leading figure in the religious-Zionist camp - he heads the Hesder Yeshiva in Petach Tikvah and is a founding member of the Tzohar Rabbis Organization - wrote a scathing attack against the High Court's decision. He called it a "desecration of G-d's Name," and more.
The rabbi concluded by writing that the ruling it was not overturned, he would work to create an alternative conversion court system - a surprising call coming from a leader of the camp that has traditionally supported the Chief Rabbinate.
Rabbi Cherlow wrote that the ruling:
* stands in total opposition to Jewish Law,
* embarrasses and shames a great Rabbi [Rabbi Druckman],
* violates the Torah's commands not to cause sorrow to converts,
* and deals a terrible blow to the efforts against intermarriage.
The rabbi wrote that the ruling also:
* leads to intervention by the secular Supreme Court in Jewish Law,
* is an unfair Halakhic intervention in an "ugly struggle against the religious-Zionist rabbinic world,"
* will lead to continued erosion of the status of rabbinical courts in the State of Israel,
* as well as to a deepening of the rift in the rabbinic world.
Rabbi Cherlow left his most hard-hitting claim for last:
** "It is the worst case of desecration of G-d's Name."
"If the ruling is not overturned," he concluded, "a genuine conversion authority will be immediately established that will operate according to Jewish Law and not according to politics, and will deal with one of the supreme missions in the Nation of Israel in a manner that is in keeping with the Torah and not via ugly manipulations. We can no longer evade this responsibility..."
Olmert Scandal Will "Shake The Country"
B”H
I think I am a bit to cynical to think that the delay in releasing the specifics of this investigation have ANYTHING to do with police procedures and EVERYTHING to do with political considerations.
Rice is in Israel right now trying to push the “Peace-of-Death” process on Israel. She is pushing HARD for an agreement right now—why? Because Olmert is going downhill quick. You don’t think Rice and Washington know everything there is to know about this?
They know. The quiet is not because Israel wants to stay quiet, but because the US puppeteers want Israel to be quiet so that they can get as much from Olmert as possible before this scandal breaks.
What will the scandal be? Your guess is as good as mine. But if the scandal is going to “Shake the Country,” I am guessing it has something to do with the giving away of Jerusalem, Golan, and Judea and Samaria. I am guessing Sharon and then Olmert were paid a lot of money to be traitors. We’ll have to wait to see if I’m right.
M
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http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/126067
by Hillel Fendel
(IsraelNN.com) Staffers in the Attorney General's office said Monday, according to Army Radio, that the findings in the latest Olmert scandal collected thus far will "shake the country when they are revealed."
The sources said that the media blackout on the details of the investigation against Olmert would be partially lifted by Tuesday, "in accordance with developments."
The sources said the findings collected thus far will "shake the country when they are revealed."
In response to a request by Israeli media to allow them to publicize details of the latest criminal investigation of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Attorney General Menachem Mazuz said Sunday night, "We will closely and constantly follow the new investigation of the Prime Minister, and we will publicize details as early as possible."
The media request cited the "public's right to know," but Mazuz, together with the State Prosecutor and the Chief Detective of Israel Police, decided that a successful investigation is more important.
"True," the three wrote, "a situation in which the Prime Minister is questioned by police under caution, but the public is not given even general information about the suspicions and suspects, arouses difficulties from a public standpoint, as well as a legal standpoint. This is clear."
"At the same time," they continue, "it is important to clarify that, as opposed to the public's right to know, there is also the vital public interest of not harming the chance to get at the truth."
Police Chief Dudi Cohen said the same on Sunday afternoon: "What is good for the investigation takes precedence over the public's right to know. The special team that is investigating the Prime Minister must be allowed to work quietly in order to thoroughly complete the process."
The Yediot Acharonot daily newspaper, Israel's largest, is reportedly facing a police investigation of its own, after it published details of the investigation on Friday morning. Various reports have hinted that it concerns suspicions of illegal campaign donations or bribery from an American businessman. Olmert himself has called the various reports "vicious rumors." Olmert’s long-time close aide, Shula Zaken, was questioned on Sunday under caution for the third time; she has maintained her right to remain silent all three times, and is being held under house arrest until Friday. Channel 2 Television News quoted senior sources Sunday night as saying that the case was moving quickly toward an indictment.
The announcement by Mazuz and colleagues stated, "The unusual circumstances of the present case necessitated an urgent investigation of the Prime Minister and a gag order on all its details. The court issued the order after it was convinced of its necessity."
"In light of the obvious sensitivity," the statement continued, "and in light of the legal and public ramifications of this investigation, a special effort is being made by all those involved to hurry it as much as possible."
I think I am a bit to cynical to think that the delay in releasing the specifics of this investigation have ANYTHING to do with police procedures and EVERYTHING to do with political considerations.
Rice is in Israel right now trying to push the “Peace-of-Death” process on Israel. She is pushing HARD for an agreement right now—why? Because Olmert is going downhill quick. You don’t think Rice and Washington know everything there is to know about this?
They know. The quiet is not because Israel wants to stay quiet, but because the US puppeteers want Israel to be quiet so that they can get as much from Olmert as possible before this scandal breaks.
What will the scandal be? Your guess is as good as mine. But if the scandal is going to “Shake the Country,” I am guessing it has something to do with the giving away of Jerusalem, Golan, and Judea and Samaria. I am guessing Sharon and then Olmert were paid a lot of money to be traitors. We’ll have to wait to see if I’m right.
M
-----
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/126067
by Hillel Fendel
(IsraelNN.com) Staffers in the Attorney General's office said Monday, according to Army Radio, that the findings in the latest Olmert scandal collected thus far will "shake the country when they are revealed."
The sources said that the media blackout on the details of the investigation against Olmert would be partially lifted by Tuesday, "in accordance with developments."
The sources said the findings collected thus far will "shake the country when they are revealed."
In response to a request by Israeli media to allow them to publicize details of the latest criminal investigation of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Attorney General Menachem Mazuz said Sunday night, "We will closely and constantly follow the new investigation of the Prime Minister, and we will publicize details as early as possible."
The media request cited the "public's right to know," but Mazuz, together with the State Prosecutor and the Chief Detective of Israel Police, decided that a successful investigation is more important.
"True," the three wrote, "a situation in which the Prime Minister is questioned by police under caution, but the public is not given even general information about the suspicions and suspects, arouses difficulties from a public standpoint, as well as a legal standpoint. This is clear."
"At the same time," they continue, "it is important to clarify that, as opposed to the public's right to know, there is also the vital public interest of not harming the chance to get at the truth."
Police Chief Dudi Cohen said the same on Sunday afternoon: "What is good for the investigation takes precedence over the public's right to know. The special team that is investigating the Prime Minister must be allowed to work quietly in order to thoroughly complete the process."
The Yediot Acharonot daily newspaper, Israel's largest, is reportedly facing a police investigation of its own, after it published details of the investigation on Friday morning. Various reports have hinted that it concerns suspicions of illegal campaign donations or bribery from an American businessman. Olmert himself has called the various reports "vicious rumors." Olmert’s long-time close aide, Shula Zaken, was questioned on Sunday under caution for the third time; she has maintained her right to remain silent all three times, and is being held under house arrest until Friday. Channel 2 Television News quoted senior sources Sunday night as saying that the case was moving quickly toward an indictment.
The announcement by Mazuz and colleagues stated, "The unusual circumstances of the present case necessitated an urgent investigation of the Prime Minister and a gag order on all its details. The court issued the order after it was convinced of its necessity."
"In light of the obvious sensitivity," the statement continued, "and in light of the legal and public ramifications of this investigation, a special effort is being made by all those involved to hurry it as much as possible."
MITZVAH GIRL GOES TO 'BAT' FOR POORER KIDS
B"H
OK, people can complain about the consumer culture, or they can do something positive with it. This girl did something positive--and she did it for other Jewish teens.
OK, so you can say "I don't think designer clothes are as important as food or electricity, etc." But one who lives for the basics day after day after day can become very embittered by the experience. You start to wish you just had one thing that was nice, and was yours. You long to be one of the "haves" for a few moments.
This young girl keyed into that. She recognized that giving charity isn't only for necessities, but also for making someone feel special and cherished.
A wise girl.
M
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By REUVEN FENTON
http://www.nypost.com/seven/05052008/news/regionalnews/mitzvah_girl_goes_to_bat_for_poorer_kids_109461.htm
May 5, 2008 -- An Upper East Side girl made good on her bat mitzvah promise - and, as a result, dozens of teens from less fortunate families went on a designer-clothing shopping spree at a Queens synagogue yesterday.
For her bat mitzvah last year, Ali Reisner asked friends and relatives to donate money and gently used clothing for a charity project rather than give her gifts.
She spent the past year since her May 2007 bat mitzvah collecting clothes from friends and buying JCPenney gift cards with her gift money, collecting $12,000 in goods.
Thanks to her efforts, dozens of underprivileged Jewish girls from Queens and The Bronx went to the Briarwood Jewish Center in Kew Gardens, Queens, yesterday for a free day of shopping.
"I got so much money for my bat mitzvah, and I didn't want all of it," said Reisner, who'll soon turn 14. "I like shopping. All girls like shopping, so I figured the best way to help these girls out was to bring clothes and gift cards so that each girl could shop for her needs."
Grateful girls poured in to the synagogue to get some high-fashion loot and had the chance to thank Reisner personally.
"I get to shop for free," gushed Revital Aronov, 14, of Kew Gardens, who walked away with an Abercrombie & Fitch shirt and a Juicy Couture sweater. "It's really good clothing. It's not even ripped or anything, and it's so pretty."
Reisner's proud mother, Mimi, 45, said her daughter came up with the idea when they went to buy a new dress for her coming-of-age ceremony.
"Ali found the experience of shopping for a bat mitzvah dress was something she wanted to bring to other girls," Mimi said.
OK, people can complain about the consumer culture, or they can do something positive with it. This girl did something positive--and she did it for other Jewish teens.
OK, so you can say "I don't think designer clothes are as important as food or electricity, etc." But one who lives for the basics day after day after day can become very embittered by the experience. You start to wish you just had one thing that was nice, and was yours. You long to be one of the "haves" for a few moments.
This young girl keyed into that. She recognized that giving charity isn't only for necessities, but also for making someone feel special and cherished.
A wise girl.
M
-----
By REUVEN FENTON
http://www.nypost.com/seven/05052008/news/regionalnews/mitzvah_girl_goes_to_bat_for_poorer_kids_109461.htm
May 5, 2008 -- An Upper East Side girl made good on her bat mitzvah promise - and, as a result, dozens of teens from less fortunate families went on a designer-clothing shopping spree at a Queens synagogue yesterday.
For her bat mitzvah last year, Ali Reisner asked friends and relatives to donate money and gently used clothing for a charity project rather than give her gifts.
She spent the past year since her May 2007 bat mitzvah collecting clothes from friends and buying JCPenney gift cards with her gift money, collecting $12,000 in goods.
Thanks to her efforts, dozens of underprivileged Jewish girls from Queens and The Bronx went to the Briarwood Jewish Center in Kew Gardens, Queens, yesterday for a free day of shopping.
"I got so much money for my bat mitzvah, and I didn't want all of it," said Reisner, who'll soon turn 14. "I like shopping. All girls like shopping, so I figured the best way to help these girls out was to bring clothes and gift cards so that each girl could shop for her needs."
Grateful girls poured in to the synagogue to get some high-fashion loot and had the chance to thank Reisner personally.
"I get to shop for free," gushed Revital Aronov, 14, of Kew Gardens, who walked away with an Abercrombie & Fitch shirt and a Juicy Couture sweater. "It's really good clothing. It's not even ripped or anything, and it's so pretty."
Reisner's proud mother, Mimi, 45, said her daughter came up with the idea when they went to buy a new dress for her coming-of-age ceremony.
"Ali found the experience of shopping for a bat mitzvah dress was something she wanted to bring to other girls," Mimi said.
Sunday, May 4, 2008
Amar calms converts after rabbinic decision
B"H
It is not the secularized Jews who converted under Druckman who will bear the brunt of this decision, it is those who converted with full intent to be Shomer Mitzvot who will be hurt.
M
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May 5, 2008 0:25 | Updated May 5, 2008 1:16
By MATTHEW WAGNER
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1209627010371&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
Chief Sephardi Rabbi Shlomo Amar attempted on Sunday to calm thousands of converts whose Jewishness has been cast in doubt by a High Rabbinic Court decision, assuring them that their conversions would continue to be recognized by the rabbinic establishment.
However, rabbinic sources said that despite Amar's declaration, the repercussions of the court's scathing indictment of a central figure in the conversion courts would continue to be felt.
The High Rabbinical Court, the highest rabbinical authority in Israel, released a decision last week that accused State Conversion Authority Rabbi Haim Druckman of intentionally transgressing Jewish law, forging official rabbinic documents and lying.
As a result of Druckman's alleged criminality, hundreds, perhaps thousands, of conversions performed by Druckman were totally illegitimate, the court ruled.
According to Jewish law, the honesty and uprightness of the three rabbinical judges who conduct the conversion process are essential to the validity of the convert's transition from gentile to Jew.
Rabbi Avraham Sherman, a highly respected halachic authority, headed the three-judge panel that issued the decision.
Shaney Gilbert, a convert to Judaism who might be affected by the court's decision, said she was distraught by the callousness of the judges.
"When I first heard about it I started shaking all over," said Gilbert, who leads a totally Orthodox lifestyle.
"I could not believe that I had been through so much and now this court could come along years after the fact and take away my Jewish status retroactively. Just like that, without any investigation into who I am."
Gilbert said the decision was a clear violation of the biblical commandment to love the convert and not to wrong him or her.
"On Judgment Day, those judges will be accountable for every tear that I and thousands of other converts shed," she said.
If the High Rabbinical Court decision is upheld by the rabbinic establishment, people like Gilbert will not be recognized as Jews even if they have embraced an Orthodox Jewish lifestyle for years.
The ramifications of the decision, if upheld, are far-reaching for converts like Gilbert: they will be unable to marry another Jew in Israel, where all marriages are governed by Jewish law.
If they are already married, the marriage will not be binding.
Also, the children of female converts will not be considered Jewish, since Jewishness is determined by matrilineal descent.
Religious schools might expel these children; marriage registrars would refuse to register them for marriage; ritual circumcision would not be performed on their sons.
Converts who converted under Druckman who wish to be recognized would have to repeat the process before an approved rabbinic conversion court.
In a short written statement to the press, Amar said he was sorry about the controversy caused by the rabbinical court's decision.
"The decision relates to one particular incident that has yet to be resolved. At any rate, no one has annulled the conversion of anyone. Rather, the court just criticized one of the panels of judges on the conversion court."
An Amar spokesman said the chief rabbi stood behind Druckman and recognized his conversions as kosher.
The spokesman also said the rabbinical court decision was published against Amar's express command. He hinted that disciplinary measures might be taken against Sherman and the two other judges who signed off on the decision - Hagai Izerer and Avraham Sheinfeld.
Despite Amar's backing, however, rabbinic sources said the allegations leveled against Druckman were so severe that inevitably, fault would be found with Druckman's conversions by some rabbis.
Rabbi Shaul Farber, head of ITIM, an organization that has helped hundreds of converts - including Gilbert - navigate the bureaucracies of the Israeli rabbinical establishment, said his organization planned to contact marriage registrars, religious schools and mohels [ritual circumcision performers] and other religious officials and try to convince them to ignore the high rabbinical court's decision.
"Marriage registrars are not obligated to adhere to the decision," Farber said.
"In parallel, we initiated a Knesset committee discussion to expose this legal outrage in which rabbinical judges who are government officials are scoffing at the decisions of the governmental bodies vested by the cabinet to perform conversions," he said.
Immigrant Absorption Minister Ya'acov Edri said, "I'm saddened by the fact that the state of Israel, particularly the rabbinic establishment, has not internalized the importance of conversion to the State of Israel. As a traditional man, I am worried about the terrible obstacles being erected on the path to conversion. The Absorption Ministry, together with the Prime Minister's Office, will do everything necessary to enable conversion by the proper authorities of the State of Israel, he said.
"I will not let this go. The Jewish people always went with the [more lenient school of] Beit Hillel. In Israel, Beit Shammai [said to be more strict] seems to be the stronger party. The rabbinate is necessary in the life of the state, but it has to be responsive to the will of the people. The people want religion and tradition, but not impossible decrees and extremism," Edri said.
"I support dialogue for a solution along the 'golden mean,' so people don't have to resort to flying to Cyprus to get married."
It is not the secularized Jews who converted under Druckman who will bear the brunt of this decision, it is those who converted with full intent to be Shomer Mitzvot who will be hurt.
M
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May 5, 2008 0:25 | Updated May 5, 2008 1:16
By MATTHEW WAGNER
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1209627010371&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
Chief Sephardi Rabbi Shlomo Amar attempted on Sunday to calm thousands of converts whose Jewishness has been cast in doubt by a High Rabbinic Court decision, assuring them that their conversions would continue to be recognized by the rabbinic establishment.
However, rabbinic sources said that despite Amar's declaration, the repercussions of the court's scathing indictment of a central figure in the conversion courts would continue to be felt.
The High Rabbinical Court, the highest rabbinical authority in Israel, released a decision last week that accused State Conversion Authority Rabbi Haim Druckman of intentionally transgressing Jewish law, forging official rabbinic documents and lying.
As a result of Druckman's alleged criminality, hundreds, perhaps thousands, of conversions performed by Druckman were totally illegitimate, the court ruled.
According to Jewish law, the honesty and uprightness of the three rabbinical judges who conduct the conversion process are essential to the validity of the convert's transition from gentile to Jew.
Rabbi Avraham Sherman, a highly respected halachic authority, headed the three-judge panel that issued the decision.
Shaney Gilbert, a convert to Judaism who might be affected by the court's decision, said she was distraught by the callousness of the judges.
"When I first heard about it I started shaking all over," said Gilbert, who leads a totally Orthodox lifestyle.
"I could not believe that I had been through so much and now this court could come along years after the fact and take away my Jewish status retroactively. Just like that, without any investigation into who I am."
Gilbert said the decision was a clear violation of the biblical commandment to love the convert and not to wrong him or her.
"On Judgment Day, those judges will be accountable for every tear that I and thousands of other converts shed," she said.
If the High Rabbinical Court decision is upheld by the rabbinic establishment, people like Gilbert will not be recognized as Jews even if they have embraced an Orthodox Jewish lifestyle for years.
The ramifications of the decision, if upheld, are far-reaching for converts like Gilbert: they will be unable to marry another Jew in Israel, where all marriages are governed by Jewish law.
If they are already married, the marriage will not be binding.
Also, the children of female converts will not be considered Jewish, since Jewishness is determined by matrilineal descent.
Religious schools might expel these children; marriage registrars would refuse to register them for marriage; ritual circumcision would not be performed on their sons.
Converts who converted under Druckman who wish to be recognized would have to repeat the process before an approved rabbinic conversion court.
In a short written statement to the press, Amar said he was sorry about the controversy caused by the rabbinical court's decision.
"The decision relates to one particular incident that has yet to be resolved. At any rate, no one has annulled the conversion of anyone. Rather, the court just criticized one of the panels of judges on the conversion court."
An Amar spokesman said the chief rabbi stood behind Druckman and recognized his conversions as kosher.
The spokesman also said the rabbinical court decision was published against Amar's express command. He hinted that disciplinary measures might be taken against Sherman and the two other judges who signed off on the decision - Hagai Izerer and Avraham Sheinfeld.
Despite Amar's backing, however, rabbinic sources said the allegations leveled against Druckman were so severe that inevitably, fault would be found with Druckman's conversions by some rabbis.
Rabbi Shaul Farber, head of ITIM, an organization that has helped hundreds of converts - including Gilbert - navigate the bureaucracies of the Israeli rabbinical establishment, said his organization planned to contact marriage registrars, religious schools and mohels [ritual circumcision performers] and other religious officials and try to convince them to ignore the high rabbinical court's decision.
"Marriage registrars are not obligated to adhere to the decision," Farber said.
"In parallel, we initiated a Knesset committee discussion to expose this legal outrage in which rabbinical judges who are government officials are scoffing at the decisions of the governmental bodies vested by the cabinet to perform conversions," he said.
Immigrant Absorption Minister Ya'acov Edri said, "I'm saddened by the fact that the state of Israel, particularly the rabbinic establishment, has not internalized the importance of conversion to the State of Israel. As a traditional man, I am worried about the terrible obstacles being erected on the path to conversion. The Absorption Ministry, together with the Prime Minister's Office, will do everything necessary to enable conversion by the proper authorities of the State of Israel, he said.
"I will not let this go. The Jewish people always went with the [more lenient school of] Beit Hillel. In Israel, Beit Shammai [said to be more strict] seems to be the stronger party. The rabbinate is necessary in the life of the state, but it has to be responsive to the will of the people. The people want religion and tradition, but not impossible decrees and extremism," Edri said.
"I support dialogue for a solution along the 'golden mean,' so people don't have to resort to flying to Cyprus to get married."
Court: Same-sex couple not defined as family
B”H
Israel doesn’t have a simple restraining order that this man can use against his partner? It has to be only under the precept of “domestic violence”?
I’m sorry, but this appears to stink to high heaven as a manufactured problem because he requested "domestic violence" protection and not a simple restraining order.
I have no problem with people living as they wish to live in whatever way they want to live—but Israel is a Jewish state. We also don’t recognize marriages of those who are not Jewish or who have a partner who is not Jewish. If there were such a thing as a Halachic Jewish marriage between same-sex partners, I’m sure, as long as both partners were Jewish, that there would be no problem—but it doesn’t exist. Therefore . . . we have no same sex marriages.
I believe no person should live in an abusive relationship, and the man should be protected from his abusive partner. I believe that there are other ways than a “domestic violence” law available to accomplish this, and I hope he is able to rise above this destructive person to live a fulfilling life.
Every person is important. Every person is a gift from G-d.
M
-----
May 4, 2008 19:25 | Updated May 5, 2008 0:07
By JPOST.COM STAFF
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1209627007814&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
The Tel Aviv Family Court rejected on Sunday the domestic violence suit of a man who claimed his male partner harassed him, on the grounds that according to the court's interpretation, Israeli law does not define same-sex couples as a legitimate family.
The judge based his decision on the wording of Israel's Declaration of Independence, which guarantees basic human rights based on the principles of the prophets of Israel.
The couple had a full relationship and lived together for over two years. The claimant stated that his partner sent harassing letters to him, his family and co-workers after their break-up, and publicized fabricated accounts of their relationship. He claimed this activity damaged his family relationships as well as his status in the workplace.
Judge Dr. Gershon Garman rejected the plea, reasoning that since the relationship was not originally public, the men were not financially dependent and their relationship seemed to have been based on sex alone, they cannot be defined as a couple.
The judge further ruled that the law does not apply to a same-sex couple since it specifies "a female partner, known to the public as his wife."
The judge additionally claimed that recognition of the man's suit "is contrary to the values of the State of Israel as a Jewish state."
According to the judge, the problem lies in the wording of the law concerning the basic dignity and freedom of man. The first paragraph of the law states that human rights are to be respected according to the principles outlined in the proclamation of the state. The Declaration of Independence mandates "a Jewish state in the land of Israel that will be based on the principles of freedom, justice and peace, in the guiding light of the visions of the prophets of Israel."
The prophets of Israel did not look favorably upon homosexual relationships.
In a statement issued by the National Association of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgendered in Israel, Mike Hamel, the group's spokesperson, wrote: "This ruling proves exactly how much Israeli legislation is lacking and to what degree the court's rulings, progressive as they are, do not recognize the concept of a same-sex family.
"It is the public's responsibility to continue to fight for the law's recognition of same-sex couples as families in every way, and that they receive the same rights and protection as Israeli law gives heterosexual families. Even if the judge decided that this couple does not fit the definition of a couple under the law, the excuse that the law of domestic violence does not apply to homosexuals is scandalous."
Israel doesn’t have a simple restraining order that this man can use against his partner? It has to be only under the precept of “domestic violence”?
I’m sorry, but this appears to stink to high heaven as a manufactured problem because he requested "domestic violence" protection and not a simple restraining order.
I have no problem with people living as they wish to live in whatever way they want to live—but Israel is a Jewish state. We also don’t recognize marriages of those who are not Jewish or who have a partner who is not Jewish. If there were such a thing as a Halachic Jewish marriage between same-sex partners, I’m sure, as long as both partners were Jewish, that there would be no problem—but it doesn’t exist. Therefore . . . we have no same sex marriages.
I believe no person should live in an abusive relationship, and the man should be protected from his abusive partner. I believe that there are other ways than a “domestic violence” law available to accomplish this, and I hope he is able to rise above this destructive person to live a fulfilling life.
Every person is important. Every person is a gift from G-d.
M
-----
May 4, 2008 19:25 | Updated May 5, 2008 0:07
By JPOST.COM STAFF
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1209627007814&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
The Tel Aviv Family Court rejected on Sunday the domestic violence suit of a man who claimed his male partner harassed him, on the grounds that according to the court's interpretation, Israeli law does not define same-sex couples as a legitimate family.
The judge based his decision on the wording of Israel's Declaration of Independence, which guarantees basic human rights based on the principles of the prophets of Israel.
The couple had a full relationship and lived together for over two years. The claimant stated that his partner sent harassing letters to him, his family and co-workers after their break-up, and publicized fabricated accounts of their relationship. He claimed this activity damaged his family relationships as well as his status in the workplace.
Judge Dr. Gershon Garman rejected the plea, reasoning that since the relationship was not originally public, the men were not financially dependent and their relationship seemed to have been based on sex alone, they cannot be defined as a couple.
The judge further ruled that the law does not apply to a same-sex couple since it specifies "a female partner, known to the public as his wife."
The judge additionally claimed that recognition of the man's suit "is contrary to the values of the State of Israel as a Jewish state."
According to the judge, the problem lies in the wording of the law concerning the basic dignity and freedom of man. The first paragraph of the law states that human rights are to be respected according to the principles outlined in the proclamation of the state. The Declaration of Independence mandates "a Jewish state in the land of Israel that will be based on the principles of freedom, justice and peace, in the guiding light of the visions of the prophets of Israel."
The prophets of Israel did not look favorably upon homosexual relationships.
In a statement issued by the National Association of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgendered in Israel, Mike Hamel, the group's spokesperson, wrote: "This ruling proves exactly how much Israeli legislation is lacking and to what degree the court's rulings, progressive as they are, do not recognize the concept of a same-sex family.
"It is the public's responsibility to continue to fight for the law's recognition of same-sex couples as families in every way, and that they receive the same rights and protection as Israeli law gives heterosexual families. Even if the judge decided that this couple does not fit the definition of a couple under the law, the excuse that the law of domestic violence does not apply to homosexuals is scandalous."
Halamish brothers from Gush Etzion Order to Present Themselves for Imprisonment
B'H
From my friend Chaya:
M
------
Super urgent!
The Halamish brothers from Gush Etzion were just ordered, by an Arab Supreme Court judge, to present themselves for imprisonment first thing tomorrow morning. (It's nice to have plenty of notice about these things…).
This order was given a few minutes ago. The Supreme Court judge was to have held a hearing pursuant to a District Court decision which referred the case to him, however, he has refused to do so.
This is standard, unfortunately, when settlers are involved.
So, the Halamish brothers, guilty of shooting only in the air and injuring no one responsive to a security event – in other words, innocent of any crime – will go to jail tomorrow.
Women in Green request your presence at a demonstration at the Migrash haRusim – Russian Compound – in Jerusalem at 9 AM tomorrow morning (Monday). For details Nadya 0505500834 or Datya 0505246770
From my friend Chaya:
M
------
Super urgent!
The Halamish brothers from Gush Etzion were just ordered, by an Arab Supreme Court judge, to present themselves for imprisonment first thing tomorrow morning. (It's nice to have plenty of notice about these things…).
This order was given a few minutes ago. The Supreme Court judge was to have held a hearing pursuant to a District Court decision which referred the case to him, however, he has refused to do so.
This is standard, unfortunately, when settlers are involved.
So, the Halamish brothers, guilty of shooting only in the air and injuring no one responsive to a security event – in other words, innocent of any crime – will go to jail tomorrow.
Women in Green request your presence at a demonstration at the Migrash haRusim – Russian Compound – in Jerusalem at 9 AM tomorrow morning (Monday). For details Nadya 0505500834 or Datya 0505246770
Burqua Cult Leader says abuse allegation a vicious lie
B"H
This tragic woman and her equally tragic situation is so heartbreaking. I think she is probably mentally ill--and her children are probably so as well. Can you imagine never speaking to your children--only communicating through notes??
Sigh.
M
-----
Abuse scandal: Accused mother says allegation a vicious lie
Mother-of-12 accused of severe child abuse goes on record for first time since her arrest, categorically denies all accusations against her
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3539181,00.html
Neta Sela
Published: 05.04.08, 11:55 / Israel News
Ynet exclusive: Beit Shemesh mother-of-12 accused of severe child abuse speaks out for the first time since the horrendous affair was revealed.
K. has been under house arrest in Jerusalem for two weeks. She is awaiting trial for abusing her children and for failing to report incest among the children.
In her first interview to the media, she insists all the accusations against her are a vicious lie: "Nothing of the kind ever happened. I never abused my children. If I hit them, it was nothing more than spanking, and even that didn't happened more than once every couple of months, educational spankings."
Just over a month ago, the state filed a severe indictment against her, for aggravated assault and abusing a minor. The indictment included multiple counts detailing years of abuse and neglect, as well as graphic details of the ways she used to beat her children using belts, sticks and a rolling pin; smash their faces into her kitchen countertop, wake them up by pouring cold water on them, throw bleach at them, put out matches on her son's chest and cut her daughter's hair as means of punishment.
But K. is sure she will be vindicated, even from the allegations that she knew of incestuous relations among the children and said nothing: "I don't believe any of these lies. I'm well aware of the lies being told about me and this too is a lie," she said.
Nothing more than a game
"There's a proverb – 'He who spares the rod hates his son'," she said when confronted with the allegations she used to chain her children to a chair and hit them. "It tells of how Solomon's mother tied him up and bit him until the Messiah emerged. The kids read it and decided to act is out. It was a game."
While in prison, those around her began fearing for her life. Being a vegan, she stopped eating almost completely. She spends her days praying, reading the Book of Psalms and saying very little. According to reports, she used to communicate with her children by passing them notes.
"After I realized I was wasting my time with them, that they just won't listen to me I decided it was better to spend my time praying," she explains – on paper.
Faced with her radical chastity, we asked how could it be, that she of all people is suspected of committing such unchaste acts. She believes God is testing her, saying the experience has made her faith even stronger: "I know the heavens are testing me, to see if I'll break and give up my chastity.
"Every day I tell the lord how much I love him and when they respected my chastity in prison I saw the good lord hasn't abandoned me… on the contrary, my faith is stronger. I realize the heavens have sent me to see how miserable the people of Israel are. It’s like they told me – 'You have to see what's really going on and who needs you to pray form them.
"The women here began reading Psalms and even the wardens are dressing more modestly… I have seen that Israel is holy and now I pray every day, as hard as I can, for God to have mercy on all of Israel, to help them find their faith, so that everyone can see the coming of the Messiah and be redeemed."
'Mother Taliban'
Supported by the mass wave of modesty sweeping over ultra-Orthodox Jerusalem, K. has found support in many women who have began attending her lessons and following her lead – wearing layers upon layers of clothes. Those layers have dubbed her "Mother Taliban". Her piety seems endless and the women surrounding her tell of devotion to the mitzvas of faith.
The last few years have seen many women begin radically covering themselves up, so much so that the ultra-Orthodox community has expressed some real concern about this eccentric behavior.
K. on her part, insists the dress was acceptable among Jewish women throughout history, and that it is secularism and education that have led to the change: "There is a prophecy saying that before the coming of the Messiah you will see women covering themselves completely and that will be the sign that the Messiah in on his way… there's nothing anyone can do. It is written in the heavens and no one can fight their will."
Supreme Court judge Hanan Melzer, who allowed K. to be released to house arrest, forbade her from having any contact with her children. She still cannot understand where the allegations against her came from.
"If I could talk to men I'd ask the judge where's his self respect, how can he even bring himself to ask me such things," she said.
Is there anything she would like to tell her children? "My sweet children, I love you very much," she wrote on a piece of paper, "and I'm not angry at any of you. I love God more than anyone."
This tragic woman and her equally tragic situation is so heartbreaking. I think she is probably mentally ill--and her children are probably so as well. Can you imagine never speaking to your children--only communicating through notes??
Sigh.
M
-----
Abuse scandal: Accused mother says allegation a vicious lie
Mother-of-12 accused of severe child abuse goes on record for first time since her arrest, categorically denies all accusations against her
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3539181,00.html
Neta Sela
Published: 05.04.08, 11:55 / Israel News
Ynet exclusive: Beit Shemesh mother-of-12 accused of severe child abuse speaks out for the first time since the horrendous affair was revealed.
K. has been under house arrest in Jerusalem for two weeks. She is awaiting trial for abusing her children and for failing to report incest among the children.
In her first interview to the media, she insists all the accusations against her are a vicious lie: "Nothing of the kind ever happened. I never abused my children. If I hit them, it was nothing more than spanking, and even that didn't happened more than once every couple of months, educational spankings."
Just over a month ago, the state filed a severe indictment against her, for aggravated assault and abusing a minor. The indictment included multiple counts detailing years of abuse and neglect, as well as graphic details of the ways she used to beat her children using belts, sticks and a rolling pin; smash their faces into her kitchen countertop, wake them up by pouring cold water on them, throw bleach at them, put out matches on her son's chest and cut her daughter's hair as means of punishment.
But K. is sure she will be vindicated, even from the allegations that she knew of incestuous relations among the children and said nothing: "I don't believe any of these lies. I'm well aware of the lies being told about me and this too is a lie," she said.
Nothing more than a game
"There's a proverb – 'He who spares the rod hates his son'," she said when confronted with the allegations she used to chain her children to a chair and hit them. "It tells of how Solomon's mother tied him up and bit him until the Messiah emerged. The kids read it and decided to act is out. It was a game."
While in prison, those around her began fearing for her life. Being a vegan, she stopped eating almost completely. She spends her days praying, reading the Book of Psalms and saying very little. According to reports, she used to communicate with her children by passing them notes.
"After I realized I was wasting my time with them, that they just won't listen to me I decided it was better to spend my time praying," she explains – on paper.
Faced with her radical chastity, we asked how could it be, that she of all people is suspected of committing such unchaste acts. She believes God is testing her, saying the experience has made her faith even stronger: "I know the heavens are testing me, to see if I'll break and give up my chastity.
"Every day I tell the lord how much I love him and when they respected my chastity in prison I saw the good lord hasn't abandoned me… on the contrary, my faith is stronger. I realize the heavens have sent me to see how miserable the people of Israel are. It’s like they told me – 'You have to see what's really going on and who needs you to pray form them.
"The women here began reading Psalms and even the wardens are dressing more modestly… I have seen that Israel is holy and now I pray every day, as hard as I can, for God to have mercy on all of Israel, to help them find their faith, so that everyone can see the coming of the Messiah and be redeemed."
'Mother Taliban'
Supported by the mass wave of modesty sweeping over ultra-Orthodox Jerusalem, K. has found support in many women who have began attending her lessons and following her lead – wearing layers upon layers of clothes. Those layers have dubbed her "Mother Taliban". Her piety seems endless and the women surrounding her tell of devotion to the mitzvas of faith.
The last few years have seen many women begin radically covering themselves up, so much so that the ultra-Orthodox community has expressed some real concern about this eccentric behavior.
K. on her part, insists the dress was acceptable among Jewish women throughout history, and that it is secularism and education that have led to the change: "There is a prophecy saying that before the coming of the Messiah you will see women covering themselves completely and that will be the sign that the Messiah in on his way… there's nothing anyone can do. It is written in the heavens and no one can fight their will."
Supreme Court judge Hanan Melzer, who allowed K. to be released to house arrest, forbade her from having any contact with her children. She still cannot understand where the allegations against her came from.
"If I could talk to men I'd ask the judge where's his self respect, how can he even bring himself to ask me such things," she said.
Is there anything she would like to tell her children? "My sweet children, I love you very much," she wrote on a piece of paper, "and I'm not angry at any of you. I love God more than anyone."
What will happen to the converts now? How will Rabbi Druckman ever recover?
B"H
There are two stories in today's press which discuss the conversion crisis in Israel, especially after the ruling that all conversions (probably in the tens of thousands) of Rabbi Druckman, head of the Conversion Authority of Israel, are void; revoking the conversion of a woman who converted 15 years ago; and authorizing the annulment of conversions of anyone who has not continued to be Shomer Mitzvot. (The full decision, in Hebrew, may be found HERE. Thanks go to Failedmessiah.com for posting the link!)
The first story, reported by Ha'aretz, claims that Chief Sephardic Rabbi, Shelomo Amar, will reverse the decision of the court and declare that the conversions are valid. According the report, however, the pending decision to cancel those conversions was drafted back in February (Hello! That is over two months ago!), but the decision "took Amar by surprise."
Really? I doubt that very seriously.
Amar, after all, is a very unlikely hero to be jumping on the white horse to save the day for the religious-Zionist rabbi who did conversions that the Haredi press has been attacking since day one (and, their attacks may be justified--I don't say they aren't). Rabbi Amar, after all, is the one who went to America to force-feed the right-wing agenda to the RCA on conversions. He is the one who has been fighting to make the whole process as stringent as possible. So, why this sudden attack of charity?
It could be the very real issue of an already overburdened Rabbinate faced with over 20,000 "suddenly un-Jewish" people who need to fix their status on an emergency basis (for example, married people--some pregnant--who can't even touch now, and whose children might be born without Jewish status; people who have been buried in Jewish gravesites who must now be dug up because they are suddenly "not Jewish;" children who are being thrown out of religious schools for not being Jewish just as finals are approaching . .. etc., etc., etc.). With such stress upon them, can they do any better with the conversions than Druckman did? It is a very real challenge that Amar may be to wise to avoid confronting. It would be wiser to review those cases one at a time and make determinations on that basis--but such an inquiry would be even more burdensome than the first option.
Of course, there is also the well-held and well-regarded opinion of many sages that once someone is converted, they are converted. There is no way to "un-convert" someone. So, the whole issue rides on how Amar, who has been the champion of strictness in conversion, will view this new halachic wrinkle. Will he try to deny the conversion of the woman in question, but allow the conversion of the other converts that Druckman authorized, which would continue to allow the idea of retroactive annulment of conversion to persist, or will he split from the Haredi concept of retroactive annulment of conversion to state that such an action is preposterous and cannot be accomplished in Jewish Law--allowing the original woman's get to be reinstated, and her Jewishness left in tact despite her later actions? After all, the whole issue rides upon the interpretation of one phrase by Rabbi Joseph Caro in the Shulhan Arukh that the Ger must have the intention of being "Qabbalat Mitzvot" at the time of the conversion.
If Rabbi Amar decides to revoke the Jewishness of the woman from whom this controversy arises, but allow the Jewishness of the other converts, that he has placed all converts into a position of having their Jewishness questioned for the rest of their lives, and having them, their children, and their grandchildren face a permanent secondary status in the Jewish world. What might follow is incomprehensibly cruel, and would violate the Torah precept to "accept the stranger as you were once a stranger." Like Catholic Marranos before the Court of the Inquisition, converts would be constantly under suspicion, spied upon by their neighbors and friends, under the constant threat of blackmail, refused in marriage, buried separately from "real" Jews. Their children would be suspect, their children's children . . . and on and on into the future.
The second story is on YNet this morning. It states that "National Religious Party Chairman MK Zevulun Orlev announced Sunday he plans to propose a bill calling for stripping the rabbinical courts of all authority pertaining to conversions." I am not sure who would oversee conversions if this occurs, but it may be the impetus for Rabbi Amar to announce that he will work to revoke the ruling. Personally, I don't think that MK Orlev's bill goes far enough.
If I were in the Knesset, I would have proposed a bill to completely dissolve the Rabbinate. Such a bill is needed. With the Rabbinate as part of Israel's government, the secular MKs have too much power over the religious affairs of Jews. After all, the Chief Rabbi is not someone elected by their peers as the greatest sage of their time--the Chief Rabbi is a political post, named by the secular PM to head up the religious courts. Although the Chief Rabbis are probably fine fellows with upstanding vitae, as long as they are appointed by PMs and not by their fellow rabbis, I doubt both their motives and their qualifications. I can't help but think they are nothing but simpering political hacks with nice headwear.
What would we do without the Rabbinate? We would have to rely upon Chief Rabbis named by their peers and by the people in local areas. Chief Rabbis would have to be connected to local issues (as they have always been and should be), and they would be answerable to those people and not to a PM who wants to give land to Arabs or thinks that religious soldiers should share a foxhole with women. Who knows? Without a Rabbinate, we might even need to rely upon the Sanhedrin! Now, wouldn't that be something to write home about?
As it stands, however, the damage has already been done to converts and Rabbi Druckman by the court, and I doubt it can be undone. No matter what Rabbi Amar does, he cannot take back what the court has said--and many will follow the court's opinions not matter what Amar says. The converts will be second-class citizens. Rabbi Druckman will never regain his reputation or his name, and for that, the court should tremble in fear before Hashm. Last I knew, destruction of one's name is tantamount to Murder. I certainly hope the rabbis who served upon this committee never commit a sin--as they have now put converts in the position of never sinning--and one who puts others in that position must be held to a higher standard.
I hope they are up to it. I doubt, very seriously, they are.
The greatest bit of sense on this matter, I have to say, came from a young man to whom I was describing this situation on Shabbat. He said, "If I were one of those converts, I would continue to perform the Mitzvot and say, 'to hell with the court.' They are no one. It is Hashm who decides, not them."
So, if you are one of those people injured by this court decision, I hope you will listen to the wisdom of one young man. I have a feeling he is wiser than all the rabbis who call themselves "great."
There are two stories in today's press which discuss the conversion crisis in Israel, especially after the ruling that all conversions (probably in the tens of thousands) of Rabbi Druckman, head of the Conversion Authority of Israel, are void; revoking the conversion of a woman who converted 15 years ago; and authorizing the annulment of conversions of anyone who has not continued to be Shomer Mitzvot. (The full decision, in Hebrew, may be found HERE. Thanks go to Failedmessiah.com for posting the link!)
The first story, reported by Ha'aretz, claims that Chief Sephardic Rabbi, Shelomo Amar, will reverse the decision of the court and declare that the conversions are valid. According the report, however, the pending decision to cancel those conversions was drafted back in February (Hello! That is over two months ago!), but the decision "took Amar by surprise."
Really? I doubt that very seriously.
Amar, after all, is a very unlikely hero to be jumping on the white horse to save the day for the religious-Zionist rabbi who did conversions that the Haredi press has been attacking since day one (and, their attacks may be justified--I don't say they aren't). Rabbi Amar, after all, is the one who went to America to force-feed the right-wing agenda to the RCA on conversions. He is the one who has been fighting to make the whole process as stringent as possible. So, why this sudden attack of charity?
It could be the very real issue of an already overburdened Rabbinate faced with over 20,000 "suddenly un-Jewish" people who need to fix their status on an emergency basis (for example, married people--some pregnant--who can't even touch now, and whose children might be born without Jewish status; people who have been buried in Jewish gravesites who must now be dug up because they are suddenly "not Jewish;" children who are being thrown out of religious schools for not being Jewish just as finals are approaching . .. etc., etc., etc.). With such stress upon them, can they do any better with the conversions than Druckman did? It is a very real challenge that Amar may be to wise to avoid confronting. It would be wiser to review those cases one at a time and make determinations on that basis--but such an inquiry would be even more burdensome than the first option.
Of course, there is also the well-held and well-regarded opinion of many sages that once someone is converted, they are converted. There is no way to "un-convert" someone. So, the whole issue rides on how Amar, who has been the champion of strictness in conversion, will view this new halachic wrinkle. Will he try to deny the conversion of the woman in question, but allow the conversion of the other converts that Druckman authorized, which would continue to allow the idea of retroactive annulment of conversion to persist, or will he split from the Haredi concept of retroactive annulment of conversion to state that such an action is preposterous and cannot be accomplished in Jewish Law--allowing the original woman's get to be reinstated, and her Jewishness left in tact despite her later actions? After all, the whole issue rides upon the interpretation of one phrase by Rabbi Joseph Caro in the Shulhan Arukh that the Ger must have the intention of being "Qabbalat Mitzvot" at the time of the conversion.
If Rabbi Amar decides to revoke the Jewishness of the woman from whom this controversy arises, but allow the Jewishness of the other converts, that he has placed all converts into a position of having their Jewishness questioned for the rest of their lives, and having them, their children, and their grandchildren face a permanent secondary status in the Jewish world. What might follow is incomprehensibly cruel, and would violate the Torah precept to "accept the stranger as you were once a stranger." Like Catholic Marranos before the Court of the Inquisition, converts would be constantly under suspicion, spied upon by their neighbors and friends, under the constant threat of blackmail, refused in marriage, buried separately from "real" Jews. Their children would be suspect, their children's children . . . and on and on into the future.
The second story is on YNet this morning. It states that "National Religious Party Chairman MK Zevulun Orlev announced Sunday he plans to propose a bill calling for stripping the rabbinical courts of all authority pertaining to conversions." I am not sure who would oversee conversions if this occurs, but it may be the impetus for Rabbi Amar to announce that he will work to revoke the ruling. Personally, I don't think that MK Orlev's bill goes far enough.
If I were in the Knesset, I would have proposed a bill to completely dissolve the Rabbinate. Such a bill is needed. With the Rabbinate as part of Israel's government, the secular MKs have too much power over the religious affairs of Jews. After all, the Chief Rabbi is not someone elected by their peers as the greatest sage of their time--the Chief Rabbi is a political post, named by the secular PM to head up the religious courts. Although the Chief Rabbis are probably fine fellows with upstanding vitae, as long as they are appointed by PMs and not by their fellow rabbis, I doubt both their motives and their qualifications. I can't help but think they are nothing but simpering political hacks with nice headwear.
What would we do without the Rabbinate? We would have to rely upon Chief Rabbis named by their peers and by the people in local areas. Chief Rabbis would have to be connected to local issues (as they have always been and should be), and they would be answerable to those people and not to a PM who wants to give land to Arabs or thinks that religious soldiers should share a foxhole with women. Who knows? Without a Rabbinate, we might even need to rely upon the Sanhedrin! Now, wouldn't that be something to write home about?
As it stands, however, the damage has already been done to converts and Rabbi Druckman by the court, and I doubt it can be undone. No matter what Rabbi Amar does, he cannot take back what the court has said--and many will follow the court's opinions not matter what Amar says. The converts will be second-class citizens. Rabbi Druckman will never regain his reputation or his name, and for that, the court should tremble in fear before Hashm. Last I knew, destruction of one's name is tantamount to Murder. I certainly hope the rabbis who served upon this committee never commit a sin--as they have now put converts in the position of never sinning--and one who puts others in that position must be held to a higher standard.
I hope they are up to it. I doubt, very seriously, they are.
The greatest bit of sense on this matter, I have to say, came from a young man to whom I was describing this situation on Shabbat. He said, "If I were one of those converts, I would continue to perform the Mitzvot and say, 'to hell with the court.' They are no one. It is Hashm who decides, not them."
So, if you are one of those people injured by this court decision, I hope you will listen to the wisdom of one young man. I have a feeling he is wiser than all the rabbis who call themselves "great."
Friday, May 2, 2008
High Rabbinical Court Cancels All Conversions of Rabbi Druckman Retroactively. Allows Cancellations for all Conversions of Those Not Keeping Shabbat
A Very Dark DayB"H
On Holocaust Remembrance Day, the "High Rabbinical Court of Israel" made one of the darkest decisions in the history of the Jewish world. A copy of that decision, in Hebrew, can be found here. (Thanks to Failedmessiah.com for posting the link).
I understand the political calculation that occurred with the decision. I can even see the reason behind the decision from a political perspective--the Rabbinate wants to take back their authority on conversion. It was never the right of the Israeli government to establish a conversion authority and to approve the conversions of those who did not meet the qualifications of their Beit Din, as has been alleged. It was never the right of the Israeli government to try to establish a higher authority than that of the Rabbis in deciding upon the conversion of potential converts under Jewish law--that is clearly the place of the rabbis and not of government politicians, most of who are secular.
However, these political disputes ring hollow when they are applied to real people in real situations in Israel. Rabbi Druckman announced, in 2005, that close to 6,000 people would be converted in that year alone. Can you imagine how many people we are talking about when we try to imagine the retroactive cancellation of ALL of Rabbi Druckman's conversion court graduates for nine years??
It seems to me that the converts, many of whom were probably quite sincere, should be reviewed on a case-by-case basis--not just cancelled! We are talking about marriages, divorces, births, britot, kashrut, religious education, and Israeli citizenship--all hanging in the balance for these converts.
These are people's lives we have here! People's futures--not just the futures of the converts, but the futures of their children and their Jewish spouses.
In addition, the court has issued a ruling that the conversions of ANY CONVERT NOT KEEPING THE SABBATH--even those not converted by Rabbi Druckman--can be cancelled. This effectly creates a category of "lessor Jews" (against the Torah prohibition of accepting converts as Jews)--who have to look over their shoulders and worry every moment of their lives lest they be accused of desecrating the Sabbath.
Wear make-up--you may be breaking Shabbat! Pick up a stick--you have violated the law! Accidentally flip a lightswitch as you are leaving the bathroom?--Poof! There goes your conversion!!
And the potential for abuse is astounding. Don't want to clean up after your Shabbat dinner? Call a convert over and tell them that, if they don't clean up for you, you will turn them in for violating the Sabbath!
Married to a convert and want a quick divorce? Just accuse him/her of ANY violation and you are free! This is so dangerous and so hateful a ruling that I am beyond words.
They have done this during the Omer, of course. I guess we never learn about loving other Jews and the importance of being kind, do we? I fear the judgement that will befall all of us for this ruling.
M
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May 2, 2008 12:06 | Updated May 2, 2008 12:31
Court retroactively revokes conversions
By JPOST.COM STAFF
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1209626992623&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
In an unprecedented decision, the High Rabbinical Court of Israel has declared invalid all conversions performed since 1999 by Rabbi Haim Drukman, the head of the Conversion Authority.
The decision occurred after the court rejected an appeal of a ruling by Ashdod's Regional Rabbinical Court rendering a woman's conversion invalid.
In a 50-page decision, a panel of three high court judges ruled that all conversions conducted since 1999 by Rabbi Drukman, who heads the Conversion Authority, and another rabbi must be declared invalid.
They also ruled that it was permitted to retroactively cancel the conversion of someone who does not observe the Sabbath.
Finally, the high court ruled the Jewish status of the woman questionable and ordered that she and her children must be added to the list of me'ukvei nissu'in (people who cannot marry under Jewish law). Out of extra caution, her husband was also added to the list of illegal marriages despite his being a Jew by birth.
The story began in the course of divorce proceedings between the woman, who was converted by Rabbi Drukman's court 15 years ago, and her Jewish-born husband. After issuing her a get (Jewish divorce document), one of the judges at the Ashdod Regional Rabbinical Court inquired about her conversion and her Jewish observance.
On the basis of the ensuing discussion, the judge ruled the woman's conversion invalid, and in consequence, that her children, who were born after her conversion, are not Jewish.
As the decision was made after the court had already granted the woman a get in accordance with Jewish law, the court proceeded to write a document stating that the get was unnecessary, since the woman's marriage was also invalid under Jewish law.
The verdict rendered the Jewish status of thousands of converts retroactively invalid, and requires them to convert a second time.
Rabbi Drukman said the ruling was "cruel" and added that it was made without counseling Chief Spehardi Rabbi Shlomo Amar.
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