Mad Magazine Artist Will Elder Draws No More

B"H

I love Mad Magazine, and my boys love it too.

Love it or hate it, you have to admit it had a great impact on the culture of America--especially pre-80s, when Elder worked.

OK, so go ahead and judge me. Say that the magazine is not appropriate, it is cruel, it is disgusting.

Then compare it to the daily news. Look at the Rabbinical Court and their ruling on Converts, see how many sicko Rabbis are running around in Baltimore, and look at how Olmert treats religious Jews over the green line.

Now, tell me--is Mad Magazine really that bad?

M

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Will Elder, 86; original cartoonist for Mad magazine A flawless draftsman, Elder also had a satiric edge. By Dennis McLellan Los Angeles Times Staff Writer http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-elder17-2008may17,0,932513.story

Will Elder, one of the original Mad magazine cartoonist-illustrators who helped set the irreverent visual style of the legendary satirical publication in the 1950s and later co-created the long-running "Little Annie Fanny" color cartoon strip in Playboy magazine, has died. He was 86.

Elder died of Parkinson's disease Thursday in a nursing home in Rockleigh, N.J., said his son-in-law, Gary VandenBergh.

"His artistic ability was unparalleled, but it was the sense of humor that he brought to it that really set him apart," Hugh Hefner, Playboy publisher and a fan of Elder's work since "the early days of Mad," told The Times on Friday.

"He was a zany and a lovable one." A Bronx-born World War II veteran, Elder was among a handful of cartoonists assembled in 1952 to launch Mad, which was founded by editor Harvey Kurtzman and publisher William M. Gaines.

Originally a comic book that spoofed other comic books, Mad in 1955 became a magazine satirizing pop culture and American life. "Will Elder was absolutely brilliant," Al Jaffee, a writer-cartoonist for Mad since 1958, told The Times on Friday. "He was the star from the beginning; he had a feel for the kind of satire that eventually spread everywhere."

Mad editor John Ficarra considers Elder to be "one of the funniest artists to ever work for Mad." "He really brought a fresh approach to satiric comic illustration," said Ficarra, who worked with Elder in the '80s when the team of Elder and Kurtzman returned to Mad after they both left in 1956. At Mad, Elder was known for his flawless draftsmanship and his flair for mimicking the visual styles of other comic book artists and drawing ad parodies with photographic precision.

But his trademark was the throwaway sight gags that he inserted into the cartoon panels: visual minutiae that he jokingly called "chicken fat." During Elder's and Kurtzman's years at Mad in the '50s, Ficarra said, Kurtzman would write the stories and do rough pencil-sketches, which Elder would illustrate. Ficarra said Kurtzman "was known for doing these elaborate layouts, where he'd pencil in what he wanted drawn in every frame and give that to Willie.

"If you think of these panels as sort of a bare Christmas tree, Willie would put on some ornaments, some balls, some tinsel. Then he'd start putting on some things you might not expect to see on a Christmas tree -- a bowling ball, an old sneaker, a frozen TV dinner -- so at the end, these panels would be jam-packed with visuals that were sort of incongruous to what was going on, but it really rewarded readers who paid attention.

"Frequently, I've heard from people who say, 'You really couldn't read one of Willie's stories in one sitting.' You had to go back and reread it several times because you always seemed to miss things." While at Mad in the '50s, Ficarra said, Elder "did the illustrations for a take-off on Mickey Mouse called Mickey Rodent. He did Starchie instead of Archie. He did Superduperman, which is a real classic. For the people who grew up with Mad at this time period and even afterward, there is real affection for Willie and his artwork." Which was, he said, "very subversive."

"He would do things like in the Superduperman parody, instead of the S shield he had a Good Housekeeping seal. And in the next panel he changed it to something else and then something else. There was constant playing with the reader." Ficarra described Elder as being "extremely personable," with "a very sharp wit."

He also had a reputation as a prankster. In school, he once whitened his face with chalk dust and shocked his teacher and fellow students by hanging from a cloakroom hook. While out to lunch with his comic book colleagues, he attempted to pay the cashier with leaves of lettuce that he had stuck in his wallet. And he once sent his wife a valentine to which he attached the heart of a chicken with an arrow through it.

Jaffee, who met Elder in junior high school in the Bronx, said his friend had something of a "split personality."

"On the one hand, he was a very serious family-oriented kind of guy," he said. "But then he could switch over to this other personality, which was antic, frantic and funny." The "serious and funny side" of Elder also influenced his painting, said Jaffee, recalling a portrait Elder once painted of his son.

"It was a beautiful painting," he said. "It was all in very somber blues and black tones, very dark and brooding. After he finished it, he couldn't resist putting two little red dots on the kid's neck as if a vampire had been there. He was always driven by the notion that something should be funny."

Elder was born Wolf William Eisenberg on Sept. 22, 1921. He attended New York's High School of Music & Art, where he met Kurtzman. He launched his career after serving in the Army during World War II. While working for Mad in the '50s, he also drew for the satirical comic Panic. After he and Kurtzman left Mad in 1956, he worked for a series of humor magazines, Humbug, Help! and Hefner's short-lived Trump.

Kurtzman and Elder's "Little Annie Fanny," a cartoon parody of American life featuring a big-busted blond that Elder painted in a three-dimensional style, ran in Playboy from 1962 to 1988. "There were occasions when we were working on deadline and the two of them would come and hole up in the Chicago mansion for long weekends to finish the work on 'Little Annie Fanny,' " Hefner recalled.

"It was a close collaborative relationship, and I loved the guys." Elder is survived by his daughter, Nancy VandenBergh; his son, Martin; his brother, Irving Eisenberg; and two grandchildren.

Sephardim Face Old-Fashioned Discrimination, Wage a New-Style Battle

B"H

This is something that is so common and so odious that most of us don't want to deal with it. We would rather look the other way and pretend it isn't happening. But it is.

I hear all the time that the discrimination I see daily against Sephardim is because of "religious differences" and not because of race, culture, and demeanor--but it is hogwash (with the accent on hog).

Our Sephardic ways are just as halachic, just as religious, just as authentic (actually, probably more so) than any Hassid--but our rabbis are discounted (unless, like Ovadia Yosef's family--they have taken up wearing black hats and following the ways of the Litvaks). But even when our people dismiss their own traditions (which is against halacha, by the way) and start following the ways of the Ashkenazim, we are still discriminated against because we don't look like them, or our families aren't considered "prestigious" enough.

I think those girls belong in a good Sephardi school--but our Sephardi schools aren't funded well, they don't draw the best teachers, they aren't "esteemed."

Mostly because they don't have money.

Strangely enough, even though Sephardim have become very rich and successful, they don't give to their own. They give to the Haredim instead.

WHY?

Because they believe the things the Haredim tell them--that the Sephardic way is "less religious" than their way, and that they need to bring religion to these "poor Sephardim."

Then those same Haredim use the money the Sephardim gave them to discriminate against our kids. (And, by the way, the treatment of this young girl in school is nothing compared to what she will face when she tries to go through the Shidduch process! THEN it gets really nasty.)

The lesson? Give to your own people. Establish places of learning that are so grand, so commanding, so revered that the Ashkenazim are beating down our doors to come in--and let them come in.

But do something they won't do.

Show those kids that we see all Jews as important and significant. Tell them that their own traditions are not better or less than ours--just different. Encourage them to keep the ways of their fathers, as our sages taught us, while respecting those who have a different way.

Speak HEBREW correctly on a daily basis, and offer classes in Ladino, Yiddish, and Aramaic--so that the kids can read ALL the important texts in their original languages.

Then, and only then, will we begin to regain our glory as the intellectual giants of the Jewish world.

Let's stop begging for the crumbs falling from the mouths of those who curse us.

M
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by Dr. Yifat Bitton
http://www.jewishideas.org/content/old-fashioned-discrimination-new-style-battle-dr-yifat-bitton

(Associate Professor of Law at Sha’arei Mishpatim Law College in Israel. She was a postdoctoral research fellow at Harvard Law School, where her studies were supported by a fellowship from the International Sephardic Education Foundation (ISEF). Dr. Biton is co-founder of Tmura, The Israeli Anti-Discrimination Legal Center, which offers pro-bono legal assistance to victims of discrimination. She is an active member of the ISEF Alumni and Friends Organization, which supports ISEF’s mission to expand access to higher education for Israel’s disadvantaged and immigrant populations.)

Introduction
On the first of September, Yael (not her real name), a 10-year-old student at a Beit-Ya’acov elementary school for girls, arrived at what had been her school for the past four years. However, upon arrival this time, she was told to enter her school through a new gate. “From now on,” the teacher told her, “this is going to be your entrance to the school.” Later that day, she discovered that her classmates were all of Sephardic extraction. She was also told she should have no contact whatsoever with any of her former Ashkenazi classmates. At the end of this first sad day of school, making her way home full of shame and hurt, she encountered Sarah (not her real name), her beloved friend for the past four years, and was shocked to learn that they had different uniforms and different timetables for arriving at school. Yael’s life, as she knew it, had changed forever.

Yael is one of 180 Sephardic pupils attending the separate school for Sephardim in the city of Emanuel in Israel. Her story sheds light on the shocking facts regarding segregation in education within Jewish communities in Israel. I write this article to call attention to this segregation and to propose innovative ways to combat it, from my unique perspective as a public-interest attorney representing disenfranchised communities and as a legal scholar criticizing discriminatory mechanisms through the law.

Discrimination in Education – Israel 2008
Ethnic discrimination has been a continual struggle for Sephardim in Israeli society since the establishment of the State of Israel. Upon arrival from their countries of origin, Sephardic Jews were categorized as “Mizrahim,” (“Easterners”, or Jews from Arab or Muslim countries) a social and cultural category that was invented just for them at that time. However, though established in the past, this category is still meaningful sixty years later.

Mizrahim in Israel continue to suffer from structural injustices. Statistics prove they have a high unemployment rate, comprise a disproportionate percentage of Israel’s prison and social welfare populations, and suffer substantial underachievement in education. These deficiencies have held steady or even increased over Israel’s six decades of statehood. (See Oren Yiftachel, Nation-Building or Ethnic Fragmentation? Ashkenazim, Mizrahim and Arabs in the Israeli Frontier, 1 Space and Polity 2, 149-169 (1997); Hubert Lu-Yon and Rachel Kalush: Housing in Israel: Policy and Inequality (1994). Although Mizrahim today comprise a larger share of formally educated society, recent research indicates that the gap itself between Mizrahim and Ashkenazim in education has grown in the last decades. See Momi Dahan, He is (Not) Entitled – Has the Gap in Education Narrowed? in Education and Social Justice in Israel – On Equal Opportunities in Education 19 (Samuel Shay et al, 2003).)

A clear example of ethnic discrimination is revealed in the story that began this article. Yael’s experience exposes the reality of ethnic segregation that is currently being practiced at a religious elementary school for girls in the City of Emanuel. The students have been physically separated within this school based solely on ethnicity. The school, which was once one school, has now been virtually divided into two schools, with the Sephardic students separated from the Ashkenazi students and the two groups housed in two isolated buildings. The school administration has taken steps to further separate these buildings, using such shocking tactics as building a concrete wall to prevent any form of interaction between the two groups. Furthermore, the school enclosed the Sephardic students’ playground area behind a plastic cloth fence (Cloth of Utah), to conceal any view of them as they played outside. This shunning treatment recalls the historical treatment of leprosy patients who were sent to live in separate colonies, or the racial segregation of black students from white students in the United States, which was one of the main triggers for the civil rights movement. The school’s administration has rationalized its actions by going so far as to stigmatize Mizrahi culture and individuals as suffering from “lower spiritual levels” than the Ashkenazim.

This repulsive and mentally abusive treatment towards Mizrahi students has already inflicted profound damage. The students have expressed deep feelings of pain, discrimination, shame, confusion, poor self-esteem, and inferiority to their Ashkenazi fellows.

However, the elementary school in Emanuel is only one of many in the Beit-Ya’acov chain of schools which discriminate, on a regular basis, against their Sephardic students vis-à-vis their Ashkenazi classmates. Moreover, similar allegations have recently been made, and confirmed, concerning other ultra-Orthodox schools in such places as Beitar-Elit, Elad and Jerusalem, where students were required, in their registration forms, to supply seemingly irrelevant details regarding the ethnic origin of their parents and similar data clearly aimed at collecting as much information as possible to enable the school administration to build an ethnic profile of prospective students. There are even cases where students who had an Ashkenazi father and, consequently, an Ashkenazi surname, but who physically resembled their Sephardic mother, were not admitted to the Ashkenazi class, whilst their friends with similar ethnic profile who bore a more “European”-like appearance were found eligible to attend this same Ashkenazi class.

This “separate but equal” mentality – which was long ago declared unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court -- tries to justify giving different groups of people separate facilities or services by claiming that each group still receives an equal quality of service. However, this mentality and practice are far from being equal; on the contrary, it promotes a distorted perception of the ‘other’ and only perpetuates separation, racism, abusive treatment, culturally-based notions of ethnic hierarchy and, most of all, immense pain.

One of the most troubling facts about this discriminatory apparatus is its institutionalized character. Although Beit-Ya’acov schools are considered an informal independent school system, separate and different from Israel’s formal state school system and operating with educational autonomy, the Beit Ya’acov schools in fact enjoy official recognition by Israel’s Ministry of Education and receive a substantial portion of their annual budget from the state’s coffers. In other words, not only does the Ministry of Education refrain from interfering with the discriminatory practices of these schools – on the excuse of reluctance to interfere with these communities’ autonomy – the Ministry even finances this discrimination with Israeli taxpayers’ money.

The Legal Battle against Discrimination in Ultra-Orthodox Education

The traditional path – too little, too late
The phenomenon of ethnic-based discrimination in Israel’s education system has yet to receive appropriate public or legal attention, as would be expected of a society that clings to the ideal of equality as Israel does. The few legal battles fought thus far on this issue have centered on Israel’s administrative courts, where the defendants were the local authorities where the discriminating school was located, and the plaintiffs had asked the court to declare the criteria for admission to these schools as being discriminatory. Based on facts proved before it, the administrative high court has ruled in the past that the quota system which then governed Beit-Ya’acov Schools (permitting no more than 30% of students to be of Mizrahi origin) was in fact prohibited by law, and that the local authorities should be held responsible for enforcing the anti-discrimination laws in their community.

In response, the schools eliminated the quota practice as a formal one, and embraced a new practice based on meritocracy alone, which “miraculously” resulted in no more than 30% of Beit-Ya’acov students being of Sephardic origin,

It was obvious that a different legal course of action needed to be taken. That is where the Tmura Center, joined by the Achoti organization, stepped in.

The New Legal Agenda
Tmura (means both "change" and "exchange" in Hebrew) is a nonprofit organization that offers pro bono legal representation to disenfranchised minorities in Israel, including women, Ethiopian Jews, and Mizrahim, on issues ranging from education to housing and land distribution, to rape, sexual offenses and violence against women. Achoti (My Sister) was founded by Mizrahi feminist social activists seeking to bring social justice issues to the center of public discourse and to enhance women’s solidarity.

Tmura -- which was founded by and employs only attorneys who are graduates of ISEF’s scholarship and leadership training programs-- has an agenda of reform.(ISEF –The International Sephardic Educational Foundation, seeks to narrow Israel’s wide social and economic gaps by providing equal access to higher education for capable young Israelis from disadvantaged communities.)

The organization maintains that Israel’s social wealth should be redistributed using private market principles, internalizing the high costs of discrimination and reframing it as financially unprofitable behavior for the discriminating parties. Using the private tort law mechanism, Tmura compels governmental organizations and corporate bodies to face the individual who has suffered discrimination in the courtroom, to acknowledge the unfairness of its policy, and to pay for its harmful consequences -- thus ultimately inducing these organizations to seek a better, non-discriminatory solution.

In the Beit Ya’acov School case, the purpose of our intervention is to stop the discrimination immediately, so that all students may learn fairly and equally together in the same classroom. Additionally, we seek compensation for the school’s Mizrahi students for the shame and disgrace they have endured.

We are therefore working on several simultaneous legal planes. First, we have sought an immediate injunction against the school, to compel it to eliminate all sorts of discrimination to which the girls are subjugated. Second, we have asked for immediate government intervention to reassign government funds allocated to the school; those funds would henceforth be administered by a nondiscriminatory professional committee appointed by the Ministry of Education. Additionally, a formal complaint was filed with the police, demanding the immediate enforcement of laws strictly and clearly banning any discriminatory practices at the school.

In my opinion, it is the duty of Israeli courts to set a precedent in such cases and bring about systemic change with the goal of abolishing discrimination of this kind. Such rulings would encourage others from this community to come forward and fight this discrimination, which has gone on far too long. The religious community should no longer feel its practices are beyond the reach of Israel’s legal system.

The Main Difficulties in Using the Legal System
The main problem in combating anti-Mizrahi discrimination in the education system is that this discrimination is largely hidden, and there is little or no public awareness of this issue. While the situation at the Beit-Ya’acov school in Emanuel has supplied concrete evidence of the larger problems within the education system, using this case as a “model case” imposes some other difficulties which are unique to this specific case.

The ultra-Orthodox community is usually an extremely closed society, with many issues kept inside the community and not addressed in Israel’s state secular courts - especially issues of discrimination against minorities (women and Sephardim). In the past, Tmura representatives have proposed to the leading rabbis of this community to take these issues to court; however, these suggestions were repeatedly rejected, as this community regards Israel’s courts as illegitimate agents of a secular system whose very existence this community opposes. However, in the Emanuel case, Tmura and Achoti have, for the first time, been given permission by Sephardic rabbinical authorities to take this very disturbing issue to a secular court due to its severe circumstances. It is indeed rare for the rabbis of the community to grant permission to take this issue before a secular court. Therefore, it is obvious that this opportunity for an action is rare and precious.

One last objection to legal recourse as a solution to discrimination is its inherently limited social impact. No single court case can change such deeply embedded practices. Therefore, in addition to taking legal action, public awareness about this situation has also been raised through a strategic campaign, which climaxed with a demonstration against both the Ministry of Education and the leadership of the Beit-Ya’acov Schools, held in the very heart of Jerusalem’s ultra-Orthodox neighborhood.

Epilogue
Yael’s story is not hers alone; it is not even the story of her 180 classmates; it is rather the story of many Sephardic pupils in Israel today. Discriminatory practices against them within the educational system are not limited to the ultra-Orthodox community. The mainstream Orthodox educational system is also regularly accused of discriminatory practices, mainly vis-à-vis Ethiopians but also Sephardim. With Ethiopians, the segregation is more blatant, as was recently demonstrated in the case of “Yeshurun” School in Petach Tikva, where four Ethiopian girls were totally separated from the rest of the students. Yet with regard to Mizrahim, more subtle practices are also common. For example, the “Zeitlin” Middle and High School for Girls in Ramat-Gan maintains de facto separate classes for the “different” girls. At the prestigious “Nativ Meir” Yeshiva in Jerusalem for boys, the number of Mizrahi students never exceeds a certain low percentage. Similar practices have even been found at some of the top schools in the state secular school system, where such discriminatory practices are truly impossible to trace and combat effectively, since from a legal perspective, it is of course easier to fight against the more blatant and traceable ones.

Within Israel’s education system, the Mizrahi community has been deprived over the decades of full and equal opportunity for education, resulting in low achievements and an absence of leadership within the community. This reality calls for concerted action to ensure that future generations of young Mizrahi Jews in Israel do not grow up with the negative impact of discrimination on their future; rather, we need to educate and cultivate strong leaders within their communities and ensure that they enjoy the true equal protection of the law. This struggle can serve as another breach in the wall, leading to an equal and fair society for all Israel’s citizens and strengthening Israel’s long-term sustainability as a whole.

Jewish Self-Defense Lessons in Arizona--and The Importance of Being Prepared

B"H

This is probably the most important lesson that any Jew can know: "We are a target in the world. We need to know how to shoot back."

Forget being politically correct, or "peace-seeking," when you are a Jew. We don't look for trouble, but it does come to our door, and when it does we must be prepared to protect ourselves, our children, and our communities.

If you think the police will help you, forget it. By the time they get there, it will be too late.

We need to have members of our community who own guns, know how to use them, and are well versed in security. When we go to synagogue, we need to know where are all the exits are, where to find the fire extinguisher, how to turn off the main gas line.

We need to have a security plan at our synagogues. Everyone needs to know what to do--not just a few people. There should be discussions of how to proceed in the case of an emergency--tornado, earthquake, terrorists, etc. We can't just rely upon our security professionals. We need to all have stake in these plans.

Children need to know where to go. We must have someone designated to lead those children. The elderly and disabled need to know that there are specific people trained and ready to assist them in exiting the building. We need to have people who are designated to remove Torahs, Holy items, and valuables from the synagogue quickly. We need to know where those items can be taken, how they can be transported, and where they can be kept in the case that the synagogue is too damaged (G-d forbid) to have them there.

We need to have several members of our synagogue who carry concealed weapons and know how to use them. Many rabbis have offered a Heter for those members to carry guns on Shabbat and Yom Tovim for the purpose of protecting life.

We need to have proceedures in our offices for dealing with threats, for opening mail that later turns out to be contaminated (by the way, don't walk through the synagogue holding the offending object to ask what should be done from the security official--you will contaminate the entire building!!).

These are issues too important for us to leave to others, or to have a half-way plan for. We need to deal with them directly, and don't worry that some might think we are "overreacting" or "trying to scare everyone."

I would rather scare everyone and overreact than be caught with a synagogue full of people on Yom Kippur who don't know what to do in case of an emergency.

Wouldn't you?

M
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Turquoise and target practice
MASADA SIEGEL , THE JERUSALEM POST May. 22, 2008
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1211434077681&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FPrinter

The semi-automatic was too heavy for me to hold it and stand simultaneously, so I found myself sprawled, instead, on the desert floor, peering through the gun's sights, wondering what in heaven's name I had gotten myself into. Squinting my eyes and aiming, I locked onto the trigger and pulled, surprising myself with the sound. The gun, which had been nestled in my armpit, sent shudders down my body. Acrid dust danced madly around me and empty popping sounds echoed in the distance. I looked up to see if I had hit my target.

No such luck.

"Are you focusing?" A voice barked at me from overhead. It had to be Zev. "Do it again - this time three successive shots in a row."

Again I aimed and released, breaking the quiet with my bullets. Pop. Bang. Boom.

Zev leaned over again, more gently. "I don't mean to be too tough on you," he said, "but I think the Jewish people are the most targeted people on the planet. So it's my desire to see my people learn to defend themselves." He patted my shoulder and stepped back.

Thanks, I thought. As long as there's no pressure or anything.

Zev, otherwise known as Zev Nadler, is the founder of Desert Wolf Tours, an Arizona-based desert-exploration workshop that combines touring, teaching and tearing it up in Tomcars, $22,000 Israeli-developed all-terrain vehicles. Visitors also learn how to use firearms - hence the semi-automatic lodged in my arms. (Think Mission Impossible meets Jurassic Park.)

Nadler, a Michigan native who was denied entrance into the IDF because of blindness in one eye, sees it as his mission to teach American Jews how to protect themselves. And, even though the tour attracts diverse participants - from high-level business executives on team-building outings to tourists at the nearby Scottsdale resorts - the Jewish groups get the inside scoop on Nadler, a peace-loving but gun-toting Kabbalistic warrior, unafraid to say what he thinks about Israel and its neighbors.

Three hours into my latest adventure, we had been building up to this part - the gun part - and I was more than ready. After all, I come from a family of fighters. My maternal grandfather fought in Israel's War of Independence and my paternal grandfather, who fought for Germany during World War I, was awarded an Iron Cross for bravery - a rarity for anyone, let alone a Jew. My parents both served as well - my mother in Israel, my father in the States. So shooting off a couple of rounds in the desert seemed almost like a family hazing exercise. And, with nothing else to amuse myself that particular Thursday in May, I thought it could be fun. Like going to a rifle range, only without all the rules.

Turns out, I wasn't too far off.

The tour began around 10 a.m., when Zev offhandedly tossed me the keys to the Tomcar. I got into the driver's seat, noted the arsenal of ammo in the trunk and wondered more than casually if triple-checking its security was enough. Don't worry, I told myself, they're not loaded. Still, I noticed I was gripping the steering wheel a little harder.

But there was Zev, of course, smiling as though nothing were wrong. "It drives like a regular car," he said, grinning broadly. "You'll be fine." Right. I can't imagine why I had ever thought differently.

Zev then handed out bandanas to cover our faces against the desert dust, and I felt like the star in some Hollywood western, my posse of cowboys sitting awkwardly around me. Beside me sat Zev, the man of the hour, wearing jeans, a military-style vest and a baseball cap, looking half nature, half rabbi. Behind me was Greg, another visitor. The three of us buckled our seat belts, I said a quick prayer for our lives and we took off.

The Sonoran Desert is breathtakingly beautiful. Filled with colonies of saguaros (tall cacti with many arms) and crisp blue skies, it was the kind of thing you could look at forever without getting bored. We drove for a while at around 30 km/h, Zev indicating when I should speed up or slow down and me rather shocked by how simple it was to maneuver this thing. We passed over rocky crevices and dried-up rivers, driving slightly sideways at times - but I was enjoying myself. This is good, I thought. See? I can handle anything.

Our first stop was a turquoise mine. Inactive, of course - no canaries here - but visitors are free to dig around outside of it and collect whatever treasures they chance upon. And I'll admit it: While the adventurous side of me was in high gear, guns and all, the girly side was ecstatic. (After all, turquoise is a girl's best friend, right?) I picked through the rocks with my hands and found a few bits, quickly stuffing them in my back pocket.

Zev couldn't help but laugh. "Come on," he said, waving me over. "We have lots more to do today." He was right. Mining trip over, Zev took us to a ghost town called Gillette, directly outside of which lies Soldier Fort. As we climbed toward it, Zev asked me if I wanted to make a blessing over the desert landscape. Without waiting for my response, he started chanting in Hebrew. It shouldn't have surprised me; it turns out Zev studies Kabbala at the fort, too. "I watch my video classes from Bnei Baruch [a Kabbala center] right over here," he said, pointing at a ledge overlooking the valley. "It's a beautiful place to get closer to Hashem [God]."

I could see why. We were standing in a postcard. Quiet winds slapped our faces, and around us, for miles on each side, sand and rock mixed with low-lying cactus plants and shocking bursts of red, yellow and orange flowers. In the distance were hazy bluish mountains. It was easy to feel inspired and at peace here.

Which was why, as Zev jolted us out of our reverie and whisked us off to the next part of our journey, I was a little sad. How could we go off and practice shooting now?

But Zev was like a little boy, excited to pull out the M-4A3. "It's like learning CPR," he said, referring to self-defense. "You hope you never have to use it, but it's a good thing to know." I agreed - after all, why else was I here? - and nervously listened to his instructions on how not to kill myself or anyone else in the vicinity. Around us I could see thousands of bullet casings littering the desert floor. Apparently this was some unofficially designated spot for target practice.

I picked out a spot for myself behind the parked Tomcar, having no desire to be anyone's missed target. Pretty soon, people around me were beaming with excitement. And then it was my turn. I have to confess: While I may like imagining I'm a super strong and sexy secret agent, trying it out with the Glock 17 Zev handed me was quite another matter. The Glock 17 is a 9 mm. handgun, grayish and black and powerful, but much lighter than I'd expected. Truth be told, it looked like a toy. I took it gingerly and began to shoot - surprised at how comfortable it felt in my hands. Soon I was grinning at myself. Hey! I thought. I can do this! Next stop, NYPD Blue.

But as I fiddled with my headset and aimed again at my target, I found my mind wandering. What would it be like to hold one of these every day and not to know, in the back of your mind, that this is only a trip, a desert tour with an end in sight and a hot shower to make it all go away? Was this a taste of how it felt to be in the army? Holding power like this in your hands and knowing that a country's freedom depends on you? And, if we all were able to learn this - self-defense, that is - would things be different? Might Europe's Jews have been able to protect themselves and thereby avoid the death camps? Ask any Israeli about the importance of self-defense, and he'll wonder how you can even ask the question.

History and victory are always on the side of knowledge and power. I couldn't help but give Zev a mental nod: Self-defense is too important to consider it a luxury. I may not be an expert - may not ever come close, in fact - but now at least I know how to use a gun. And, what's more, I'm not afraid of doing so. It's like Zev says: "I wish there were no guns in the world, but until there are no guns, I want to know how to use one - and teach everyone I love how to use them."

www.desertwolftours.com.

PM's office believes Syrian side 'earnest'

B”H

Yeah.

Earnest in their belief that they are going to get a free meal and Israel will provide it.

Earnest in their belief that Olmert is desperate to get out of the stinking house of cards he has built and is willing to sell Israel out at a loss.

Earnest in their belief that Israel lost the Lebanon War and is too frightened to fight against the Arabs again--especially stuck in the no-win situation of trying to wage a "humanitarian" war with savages who would place a rocket-launcher in a hospital nursery to win.

Earnest in their belief that, without the Golan, Israel will fall easily and the Jews will not fight for their land. After all, hasn't Olmert's government already completely broken the spirit of the only group who would fight--The Religious Zionists? If they fight, they will all be in prison, their homes bulldozed, and their lives ruined by their own people. A sweet deal for Syria to say the least!

Earnest.

M

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Olmert aides conducting talks with Syria return from Turkey with reserved optimism. 'We believe Syria is earnest about negotiations. Whether it leads to peace remains to be seen,' they say
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3546371,00.html
Roni Sofer
Published: 05.22.08, 01:17 / Israel News

Two of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's aides, Chief of Staff Dr. Yoram Turbowicz and State Counselor Shalom Turjeman returned to Israel on Wednesday after two days of intensive talks in Istanbul, Turkey. Immediately upon arrival they rushed to inform the prime minister of the talks' results.


Not Everyone Optimistic
At least 57 MKs have already voiced support of legislation that would require government to obtain Knesset majority of 80 representatives before withdrawal from Golan Heights in future peace deal with Syria

After being updated, Olmert headed to the Kibbutz College of Education, where he defended the renewal of the peace talks with Syria. "It is always better to talk than to shoot and I am happy both sides here have decided to talk," he said during his speech.

The Prime Minister's Office expressed a reserved optimism as to the future of the negotiations. "We believe Turkey is earnest, and they believe the Syrians are earnest. Whether or not the talks achieve peace remains to be seen," the office stated.

The talks between Israel and Syria received the American green light from US President George W. Bush during his most recent visit to Israel. The subject had also come up during US Vice President Dick Cheney's visit. Israeli officials believe US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice remains opposed to the process, seeing as Syria belongs to the 'axis of evil'.

The Prime Minister's Office commended the political achievement, but certain officials in Jerusalem have expressed concern for the timing. Security officials warned that the talks serve Syrian interests and are therefore dangerous.

Other officials in Jerusalem warned of over-enthusiastic responses to the talks. "It's important, but one shouldn't exaggerate the significance of the achievement. These are only indirect negotiations, which may result in Syria leaving the 'axis of evil'. These are not peace talks.

"The disclosure of the process on the same day in which Hizbullah gained an achievement in Lebanon is a very problematic thing. We could find ourselves, say, in trouble with the Palestinians because the process with Syria could pull the rug out from under that achievement," one official said.

During the past few weeks, Syria has demanded that the talks receive American sponsorship in public, and a preliminary concession of the Golan. Israel demanded straightforward negotiations and a refrain from preliminary conditions and covert talks. Through Turkish mediation a middle ground was found, according to which indirect talks would be handled by Turkey, while the US received advanced notification, and no preliminary conditions would be set, like the ceding of Israel from the Golan.

Golan Heights discussed
According to reports made known to Ynet, the talks have already included preliminary debates about the main issues at the heart of negotiations, such as the fate of the Golan, control of water sources, and security arrangements between the two countries. These issues stand to be brought up in two weeks, to be discussed in full.

Officials on both sides have announced that in the meantime talks will be indirect, with Turkey as mediator, but they do not rule out direct negotiations in the future.

The Israeli representatives have predicted that a long and difficult process lies ahead. "We have no assumptions as to how or when (the process) will end. The disputes are not simple, and the mutual demands are not either. All we can say is that in Istanbul we have a chance to renew the peace process with Syria, which has been frozen for eight years," one official said.

Citing "Need for Jewish Community," Conference of European Rabbis Refuse Recognition of Israeli Conversions

B"H

OK, Rabbi Amar. You said you would do something. Then silence.

While you were silent, the Rabbinate put the marriages of converts on hold, and now the CER has invalidated conversions in a wholesale manner as well.

When will this obvious Hillul Hashm end?

They say that the converts need a "Jewish Community" in order to maintain their religious commitment? I highly doubt that.

I have lived in the country away from my fellow Jews, and I have lived in the city with them. I can tell you it is a heck of a lot easier to keep myself and my children on the right path when we are alone in the country.

The "Jewish Community" destroys one's sense that Torah is actually taken seriously by actual religious Jews. All it takes is one moment in synagogue when one Jew speaks evil of another; or a moment on the road to see your fellow congregant, so pious and humble in synagogue, so careful to walk to and from services, go speeding by you dressed in a tank-top on his way to a baseball game; or attending a wedding of so-called FFB (religious from birth) Jews with their maids-of-honor dressed like sluts to really put a curb on the idea that a Jewish Community is good for one's sense of commitment to religious issues.

Personally, I prefer walking up a hill at sunset with my children and seeing the magnificence of G-d's creation spread before me to the overwhelming stench of hypocrisy one sees on an every day basis in the city--including the hypocrisy of a so-called Torah scholar suggesting that a conversion can be overturned.

M
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JPost.com » Jewish World » Jewish News » Article
May 20, 2008 2:42 | Updated May 20, 2008 15:38
European rabbis invalidate Druckman conversions
By MATTHEW WAGNER
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1210668679783&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

The Conference of European Rabbis announced this week that it would not recognize converts who were converted by rabbis in Israel, singling out Rabbi Haim Druckman, head of the Israeli Chief Rabbinate's State Conversion Authority.

"We oppose the phenomenon of Israeli rabbis shuttling to Europe especially to perform a conversion and then shuttling back," said Rabbi Moshe Lebel, Rabbinical Director of the Conference of European Rabbis (CER) in a telephone interview from Moscow. "These rabbis are not familiar with the reality in Europe," he added.

"I know of several cases where Druckman and other Israeli rabbis performed conversions for people who lived in communities in places like Germany and Scandinavia where it was almost impossible to adhere to a religious way of life. There was no minyan [prayer quorum], no kosher butcher, no mikveh [ritual bath]." The CER's decision comes just two weeks after a judge who sits on Israel's High Rabbinical Court, the most senior rabbinical body in the state, cast doubt on the validity of conversions performed by Druckman in Israel.

The judge, Rabbi Avraham Sherman, accused Druckman of numerous charges, including forging court documents and accepting converts without demanding that they adhere to Orthodox Jewish practice. Sherman also accused Druckman of misusing conversions to solve the problem presented by the arrival of about 300,000 immigrants from the Former Soviet Union to Israel who are not considered Jewish according to Jewish law, but who are eligible for automatic Israeli citizenship according to secular Israeli law. Jewish leaders consider these immigrants a potential danger to the continuity of a Jewish majority in Israel. However, according to most rabbinic opinions conversion is not authentic unless the potential converts accept upon themselves an Orthodox Jewish lifestyle.

In addition to authorizing conversions in Israel, Druckman has also performed dozens of conversions in European communities where there was no recognized rabbinical court. In the wake of Sherman's accusations, the CER has decided to invalidate all conversions performed by Druckman or other Israeli rabbis operating like Druckman in Europe.

"In Israel the argument can be made that non-Jews who convert continue to live in a state with a Jewish majority in which the dominant culture is more or less Jewish," said Lebel.

"But in Europe it is of utmost importance that the potential convert belong to a strong Jewish community after his or her conversion. The convert needs the support of the community to remain religious and observant."

In sharp contrast to the CER's stance, the Rabbinic Council of America, the largest rabbinic organization in North America, came out in defense of Druckman. It issued the following statement on its Internet site over a week ago: "The RCA finds it necessary to state for the record that in our view the (CER) ruling itself, as well as the language and tone thereof, are entirely beyond the pale of acceptable halachic practice, violate numerous Torah laws regarding converts and their families, create a massive desecration of God's name, insult outstanding rabbinic leaders and halachic scholars in Israel, and are a reprehensible cause of widespread conflict and animosity within the Jewish people in Israel and beyond. The RCA is appalled that such a ruling has been issued by that court.

"Given the very public nature of the challenge posed by the ruling in question, we call on the Chief Rabbis of Israel to reaffirm their support of the Conversion Authority and its leadership in clear and unambiguous terms at the earliest possible time. Until that will happen, each passing day will cause reprehensible anguish to halachic converts, irreparable harm to the fabric of the Jewish people, and a considerable debasement of the good name of Torah, halacha, and tradition."

Axing of National Service Outrages Religious-Zionist Public

B"H

I commented on this last week. It is a terrible act by a schoolyard bully who is using her position to hurt people, and the most vulnerable people at that. These girls help children with disabilities and learning problems, they help teachers, and they work with youth.

Without the girls to fill in, the educational structure will collapse. It doesn't cost MORE, it costs less to have these volunteers in the school. Otherwise there would have to be hired people to help.

M
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http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/126233
by Hillel Fendel

(IsraelNN.com) The Knesset Education Committee, at the behest of MK Ariel, will hold an urgent session on Wednesday on the Education Ministry's decision of last week to cut down National Service for religious girls by a third. The decision effectively ends the activity of over 3,000 National Service girls in schools around the country.

The decision was made by Education Minister Yuli Tamir of Labor, a co-founder of the ultra-left Peace Now organization. MK Ronit Tirosh (Kadima), a former Likud member who served in the past as Director-General of the Education Ministry, said, "The Education Minister is consistent in one thing, and that is in causing irreversible damage to [Israel's] educational network... Though she claims to be an adherent of the egalitarian-democratic approach, she wipes out with a wave of her hand the important National Service enterprise for religious girls."

National Service is the choice of close to 10,000 female high school graduates each year, whose religious beliefs prevent them from choosing to enlist in the army. Over 3,000 of them work in schools around the country.

If the decision takes effect next year as planned, the country will lose the services of some 3,000 girls who, instead of enlisting in the army, will choose a third option: Staying home - i.e., getting a job, going to school, or the like.

Minister Tamir, claiming Finance Ministry cuts as the basis for her decision, announced a cut last week of 1/3 National Service positions - meaning trouble both for the girls and the schools who count on them.

MK Ariel: Tamir's Decision a 'Crime for Generations'
MK Uri Ariel (National Union) said that the decision by Tamir is both a "crime vis-a-vis the coming generations, and ugly political persecution."

"The schools rely on the National Service girls as counselors, tutors, teachers' assistants, and aides to weak and at-risk children," Ariel said. "Taking them out of the pool means no future for the children who count on them."

Of the 3,136 National Service girls who served in schools last year, 90% of them were in public or public-religious schools.

This is not the first blow delivered by Minister Tamir against National Service. Over two years ago, she cut national budgeting for National Service by 35% - from 60 million shekels to 38 million. Despite the damage that this could have caused, the National Service associations decided not to cut the amount of National Service goals, and to pay, out of their own pockets, the girls' monthly transportation and housing expenses.

Ariel attacked Tamir for "waging a stubborn and persistent war against every enterprise that is identified with [religious] Zionism, even in something that helps the entire public - such as her cuts of the pre-army yeshiva academies, the Jewish Awareness centers, and Jewish studies clauses for yeshivot and religious girls high schools."

"Yuli Tamir's hatred for the knitted yarmulke [a trademark of the religious-Zionist public - ed] and everything it represents," MK Ariel continued, "has caused her to lose her senses, and she is now using the Education Ministry, which belong to the entire public to destroy a religious-Zionist educational and volunteer enterprise."

Knesset Committee to Convene Urgently
At Ariel's request, Knesset Education Committee Chairman MK Rabbi Michael Melchior (Labor) has called a session for Wednesday, 9:30 AM to discuss the new decree.

Yaron Lutz, Deputy Director of the Association for Volunteer Work, told Arutz-7's Hebrew newsmagazine, "I believe that the State of Israel cannot allow itself such a situation of no National Service in schools - neither ethically, nor socially, nor practically. I cannot see how schools will be able to function without the National Service girls."

Lutz said Tamir is not justified in blaming the Finance Ministry for the cuts: "The Finance Ministry cut a mere few percentage points; this cannot be the reason for cutting 30% of the National Service positions."

Where are the Jews? Jewish Names Noticeably Absent in Agriprocessor's Raid Documents

B"H

OK, what is going on?

Unless you have been living in a cave, you must know that the largest kosher meat processor in the country was hit by an immigration raid on May 12th in Postville, Iowa.

The ICE press release is clear about what happened, and the Des Moines Register has been following the story closely.

In the Des Moises Register article about scheduled hearings for the detainees, it says:

"The hearings come one week after federal police and customs agents raided the kosher meatpacking plant and detained 389 workers. The workers – 281 men and 25 women – are suspected illegal immigrants from Guatemala, Mexico, Ukraine and Israel. "

In addition to this tantalizing bit of information, suggesting that many of the Jewish workers were also detained, there is an article, featured by failedmessiah.typepad.com today, which states that Rabbi Tal Gitner was detained and was visited by a group of Rabbis from Rubashkin.

In the article, it states that Rabbi Gitner chose to have a cell in solitary confinement:

"The visit was conducted under heavy guard and they were allowed to speak to Rabbi Ginter only through a glass window. He told the rabbis that although he is being treated well the conditions there are very difficult. He said that he chose to be in consolitary confinement in a cell1.20 meters by 2 meters so he could spend Shabbos alone."

However, the article in the Des Moines Register states that the detainees were held in a facility at the National Cattle Congress facility in Waterloo . . . a place distinctly void of solitary confinement cells.

A search of the names of those detained in the raid--both the hearing schedule from the US District Court, and the list released by the Des Moines Register--does not contain any Jewish names, and certainly not the name of Rabbi Gitner. In addition, I did an "inmate search" of all Iowa jails, and never located Rabbi Gitner's location.

So, where are these detainees from Israel and the Ukraine? I guess they must all have very Mexican/Guatemalan names, or I just can't find them in the list . . .or . . .

Maybe someone has made sure they don't appear?

I thought that the names were all public information. How many of our Jewish citizens are now detained in Iowa? Are they getting Kosher food? Do they have everything they need?

I guess we can't know that.

Perhaps Rabbi Gitner is not detained! Maybe no Jews have been held! In that case, both the Des Moines Register and the Jewish paper are telling lies about the fact that people from Israel and the Ukraine were detained.

So, what's the truth?

M

Early Elections Expected. Olmert Begs Kadima to Stay Unified

B”H

It isn’t just Kadima that is failing, it is Israel’s governmental system as a whole. We don’t just need a new coalition, we need a new government system.

Israel should not be trying to function on a broken British system (that system only seems to work for the British, by the way).

In case you don’t know how the Israeli system works, here’s a VERY BASIC primer:

The voter votes for a political party (not a person), then, if the party has enough mandates (votes) it gets a seat in the Knesset (the parliament). The party chooses the person who occupies the seat, not the voter.

Then, if a party wins the majority of votes, they get to name the Prime Minister from among their party members (again, the people don’t get to choose). Also, none of the people who are seated in the Knesset are responsible for any area of Israel. They are only answerable to their party (not the people).

If the winning party doesn’t have enough of a mandate (votes) to have a voting majority of seats in the Knesset, then it has to bring in other parties to create a coalition (majority) to run the country. If, at any time, the ruling party does not have a majority with their coalition, new elections must be called.

Ministry portfolios (positions like Education Minister, Interior Minister, etc.) are usually give in order to win over parties to the coalition or to reward those who are party faithful (again, the people are not important).

No wonder the Knesset is so messed up.

The government system needs to be replaced to have a representative democratic system where representatives are beholding to the people, not the party. If this would happen, we would have a VERY DIFFERENT government in place.

Meanwhile, watch for Olmert to resign a few months before elections are held, naming Livni as his evil spawn . . .uh, "successor" . . .

This will happen between October and November, giving Livni the opportunity to suck up to the Israeli public long enough to keep the coalition together to meet with Bush's lap-dog Condi and give away the store before Bush leaves office in January.

There will be nothing Shas or the NRP can do to stop the fire sale that will accompany this giveaway of Jerusalem, Hevron, and most of what is left of Yesha.

Not that Shas or the NRP care very much what happens to Jerusalem, as long as the Haredim get their schools and welfare is protected.

M
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May 18, 2008 23:19 | Updated May 19, 2008 15:56
PM: Kadima MKs must stay unified
By REBECCA ANNA STOIL AND JPOST.COM STAFF
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1210668668976&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

Responding to murmurs of a challenge to the current coalition through the possibility of an early election, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert encouraged Kadima MKs on Sunday with a pep talk at the start of Kadima faction meeting.

"It is important that we continue to function as a unified faction, that confronts the challenges of parliamentary activities," Olmert said. "The coalition is always struggling, and the opposition is always trying to present a challenge. But I feel that we are capable enough and experienced enough to confront these challenges," Olmert said at a Kadima faction meeting."

Hours earlier, one of those challenges was exhibited by Opposition leader Binyamin Netanyahu, during a Likud faction meeting.

"The Olmert-Kadima government has no mandate to negotiate the borders of the State of Israel," Netanyahu declared. "This government was chosen from other circumstances, and during a different time. Today most of the public knows that all of the territory which is transferred, or which is promised to be transferred will turn into a base of radical, Islamic terror, under the auspices of Iran."
RELATED

* Opposition on Right, Left eager for summer session

"The government needs to return the mandate to the people, so that they can choose a different government," he said.

Late Sunday night, Defense Minister and Labor Chairman Ehud Barak gave his own prediction about the possibility of early elections, saying that they were likely to take place by the end of the year.
[New Meretz Chairman Haim Oron.]

New Meretz Chairman Haim Oron.
Photo: Ariel Jerozolimski

"I predict that elections will be moved up and held either at the end of this year, or at the beginning of 2009," Barak said during a Labor faction meeting.

Other faction leaders said the elections would not be held until after Succot, placing the earliest possible dates in late October or early November.

"How long it will be possible for the government to survive - not to actually be proactive, but to survive - is a question open to assessments and guesswork," Likud faction chairman Gideon Sa'ar said. He added, however, that it was "increasingly clear that either in the summer session or the next winter session, we will go to elections."

"I hope that for the good of the state, it will be in this session, because it is impossible to maintain a stable government under the current conditions," he said.

Sa'ar described the push for elections as the central goal of his party during this session.

"If we can actually push the government to elections, that will be enough of an achievement for us during this session," he said. "We plan to act to widen the cracks within the coalition, and will work to shorten the term of this government and to get elections before the end of 2008."

NRP chairman Zevulun Orlev expressed optimism that the coalition would lose its footing during the upcoming session.

"I'm very, very concerned that there is currently a threat to the democratic nature of the State of Israel," he said. "I really hope that there are coalition parties like Labor that will demonstrate that they are more concerned about Israeli democracy and the public's faith in the government than about furthering their own political careers."

Orlev warned that "the topic of elections and instability will lie just under the surface during every hearing about every subject. It simply cannot be that this kind of government can be responsible for life-and-death decisions."

If the opposition could successfully pass a law in June to push elections forward, he said, elections could be expected in November.

Religious affairs: God only knows where this will lead

B"H

I know where it is leading. It is leading to the wholesale dismantling of the Rabbinate--which should have happened years ago.

The Rabbis should not be named by secular PMs who eat shrimp. They should be chosen by their local community on the basis of the respect they garner.

M

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Religious affairs: God only knows where this will lead
Matthew Wagner , THE JERUSALEM POST May. 15, 2008
http://www.jpost.com /servlet/Satellite?cid=1210668648537&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

A high-ranking source in the rabbinical courts said this week that the recent controversy over conversions, pitting rabbi against rabbi, has devastated the rabbinical establishment.

"I don't know if we will ever fully recover from this fiasco," he said.

Last week, Rabbi Avraham Sherman, a judge on the High Rabbinical Court and the most important rabbinical adjudicator in the country, dropped a bomb which is still rocking the rabbinic world. In a 50-page legal decision, which is part talmudic dialectic, part emotional diatribe, Sherman blasted a rabbinic peer and in the process undermined the Chief Rabbinate's official Conversion Authority.

His attack cast doubt on the Jewishness of thousands of converts converted over the years by the Conversion Authority. Most of the converts affected by Sherman's claims are Soviet immigrants who came here under the Law of Return but who are not considered Jewish according to Halacha.

Sherman accused Rabbi Haim Druckman, a leading religious-Zionist leader and former Knesset member who heads the Conversion Authority, of forging documents and allowing political ideology to taint his legal judgment.

But Sherman's most severe accusation was apostasy. He said that Druckman intentionally converted gentiles, even though he knew they would never adhere to Halacha, willfully transgressing the God's will.

This was a blatantly evil act, no matter how you looked at it, argued Sherman. If Druckman seriously believed that the gentiles he was converting were being transformed into full-fledged Jews, then he was committing the sin of placing a stumbling block before the blind. The instant these converts emerged from the ritual bath, God would expect them to eat only kosher food, keep Shabbat and adhere to a multitude of other commandments.

If these converts would not adhere to the Orthodox law, claimed Sherman - who said Druckman knew they would not - these converts would receive heavenly punishment like any other wayward Jew.

On the other hand, if Druckman's conversions were not valid, as Sherman claimed they weren't, Druckman was permitting gentiles to intermarry with kosher Jews, a colossal assimilation disaster that would destroy the purity of the Jewish people in the Land of Israel.

Either way, Sherman said, Druckman was unfit to preside as a judge. And since a panel of three kosher rabbinic judges was an integral and necessary part of the conversion process, any gentile whose conversion was overseen by Druckman had never really converted.

Overnight, thousands of converts, many of whom had been living for years under the impression that they were part of the Jewish people, were being rejected by Sherman. If Sherman was right, the implications from a halachic point of view were far-reaching: If these "converts" were married to Jews, sexual relations were forbidden; if a woman had converted and given birth after the conversion, her children were not considered Jewish; if the convert was single and wished to get married, he or she could not do so in Israel, where marriages are governed by the Chief Rabbinate.

SHANEY GILBERT, a convert to Judaism who might be affected by the High Rabbinical Court's decision, was preparing for Shabbat when she first heard about Sherman's decision.

"My table was set; my Shabbat candles were ready; and I had some time before sundown," recalled Gilbert. "So I decided to check the news on the Internet. I could not believe what I saw. I started shaking all over. 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 that the decision was a clear violation of the biblical commandment to love the convert and not to wrong him.

"On the day of their judgment, those judges will be accountable for every tear that I and thousands of other converts shed," added Gilbert.

Druckman told The Jerusalem Post this week that Sherman's attack on him was "motivated by hatred, evilness and animosity."

"How can a judge condemn a man without giving him the chance to answer the charges leveled against him?" he asked.

Druckman related that even before the publication of Sherman's decision, which was signed by two additional High Rabbinical Court judges, Sherman had distributed the decision at a conference that took place three months ago. "After that I refused to appear before Sherman. It was obvious that he had already made his decision about me."

Druckman declined to address the specific accusations made by Sherman against him.

Sherman, who was contacted by the Post for his response, said that he was prevented from commenting on the matter. Rabbinical courts spokeswoman Efrat Urbach confirmed this.

However, Sherman received backing from the haredi rabbinic establishment. For instance, Rabbi Avraham Dov Levine, who heads an independent rabbinical court based in Jerusalem that specializes in determining Jewish genealogical trees (yihus) in the haredi community for couples before marriage, claimed in an interview this week on Radio Kol Hai that the vast majority of converts converted by Druckman's authority did not adhere to Halacha after the conversion. Therefore, this was proof the conversions were not valid.

Sherman's attack also received the backing of the haredi daily, Yated Ne'eman, which has been spearheading a campaign against the Conversion Authority for years. Haredi rabbis are fundamentally opposed to the creation of a separate rabbinical body that specializes in making conversions as easy and user-friendly as possible. Rather, these rabbis believe that conversions should not be encouraged, but should be performed only in extraordinary situations, when the prospective convert is sincerely interested in embracing all Orthodox strictures.

But many secular Jewish leaders and religious Zionist rabbis see mass conversions as the best solution to the threat of intermarriage posed by the presence of about 300,000 non-Jewish Soviet immigrants and their offspring. These immigrants are fully integrated in public schools, the IDF, the universities and the labor force. Even secular Jewish leaders who do not accept Orthodox strictures in their day-to-day lives are strongly convinced of the danger to Jewish continuity posed by these gentiles if they are allowed to meet Jewish Israelis, fall in love and get married without being converted.

Religious-Zionist rabbis believe it is possible to encourage conversion among non-Jewish immigrants while maintaining the highest halachic standards. These rabbis have to juggle two competing goals: converting as many non-Jews as possible to prevent intermarriage, while uncompromisingly adhering to the demands of Jewish law which dictate that a prospective convert must be willing to embrace Orthodoxy.

Haredim, in contrast, are convinced that conversions can never be the solution to the threat of intermarriage, because for the vast majority of gentiles, adopting a strictly Orthodox lifestyle is simply not realistic. The only guarantee against intermarriage, argue the haredim, is maintaining strict separation from secular Israeli society.

Sherman's decision, though more aggressive in its wording, was just another salvo in the ongoing argument over conversions between haredim and religious Zionists. But it also defined more clearly the delineation between the warring camps, and it placed Chief Sephardi Rabbi Shlomo Amar squarely on the side of the religious Zionists.

Although Sherman's rabbinic invective focused mainly on Druckman and his former deputy, Rabbi Yosef Avior, the attack was also indirectly aimed at Amar, who is the overriding halachic decisor supervising conversions performed by the Conversion Authority. If, as Sherman claimed, thousands of converts were passing through the Conversion Authority in a non-kosher way, without any intention of adhering to Halacha, Amar could not escape culpability.

Immediately after the publication of Sherman's decision, Amar released a terse press release saying that he backed Druckman, and that all conversions performed by Druckman or by the authority would be recognized.

However, so far, Amar has refrained from addressing Sherman's specific accusations, one of which is that Druckman signed off on documents attesting to the fact that he was present at conversions when in reality he was not.

As a result, dozens of city rabbis who have read Sherman's claims against Druckman are hesitant to register converts for marriage. City rabbis, who as part of their job also serve as marriage registrars in their respective cities, are responsible for determining the Jewishness of couples who come before them with a request to marry.

Several rabbis told the Post this week that if a convert came to them to register for marriage they would have to consult with Amar first.

A near anarchic situation has been created in which one arm of the official, state-funded rabbinate, the High Rabbinical Court, is attacking another, the Conversion Authority - while the chief rabbi, who is the ultimate authority of both, is torn in half, and has yet to issue a definitive stand on the issue.

More importantly, thousands of Israelis who converted to Judaism no longer know whether or not they are Jewish. The answer, obviously, depends on whom you ask.

Chelsea Manager Avram Grant, Player Tal Ben Haim Targets of anti-Semitic Abuse

B"H

London is becoming the new home of anti-Semitic attacks. Attacks, graffiti, and now these e-mails.

Of course, London is also the center of a huge number of radical Moslem groups.

M
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Email accuses Grant of 'having Arab blood on his hands'
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3544315,00.html

Jewish Chronicle reveals Chelsea's Israeli manager has been target of vile anti-Semitic abuse. One email sent to him brands Israeli player Tal Ben Haim 'a Jewish terrorist'

Ynetnews
Published: 05.17.08, 10:20 / Israel Culture

Chelsea manager Avram Grant has been the target of vile anti-Semitic abuse, the Jewish Chronicle has revealed after obtaining copies of emails sent to the Israeli.

One, full of misspellings, accused Grant of “having Palestinian and Arab blood on his hands”. Another branded his Israeli player Tal Ben Haim “a Jewish terrorist”.

Anti-Semitism
Chairman Bruce Buck responds to anti-Semitic comments made by some fans following Israeli Avram Grant's appointment as team's new coach. 'This is one thing we will not tolerate,' he states

According to the London-based Jewish newspaper, Grant was not the only recipient of such emails. Others have been sent to Gordon Brown, Conservative leader David Cameron, George Galloway and the JC.

Before the match against Manchester United, one invited Chelsea fans to “sieg heil the afternoon singing the usual Chelsea anti-Jewish song, and waving the Palestinian Hamas flag”.

According to the JC, months after Grant’s appointment, Chelsea chairman Bruce Buck spoke of a “totally unacceptable” increase in anti-Semitism. In February, a white powder was sent to Grant along with a death threat but the substance was found to be harmless. He has also been verbally abused by Chelsea fans during matches at Stamford Bridge.

Grant has refused to be questioned on the subject. His spokesman told the JC, “He doesn’t want to become a political or social commentary figure. He just wants to be known as a football manager.”

He said he was aware of the emails and the club is “proactive” in co-operating with police by gathering evidence for a prosecution. “When that happens we will be very high profile,” he said.

Grant’s sister, Ruth Grant Porat, told the JC she believes the coverage of him has been disrespectful but not anti-Semitic.

“Anti-Semitism is a heavy word to use and a major charge to make,” she said. “I’m scared to use a word like that lightly after what my father went through in the Holocaust.

“I’ve been following the British media very closely on the internet and I haven’t seen any, except some occasional comments in the talkbacks. We went to the Carling Cup final and didn’t hear any anti-Semitism. The media did not show respect for Avram because he came from a country with no major football culture but I have seen a clear change in the tone of the press in the past few weeks with much more respect for Avram and appreciation of him.”