Misleading Headline about Israel from Florida's St. Pete Times

From PRIMER:

Another misleading and outrageous headline from the biased St. Petersburg Times

We have been monitoring headlines from The St. Petersburg Times since July of 2002 that report violence between the Israelis and the Palestinians. Above is just another example in headline writing that would cause a reader who only glances at the headline to conclude that Israel is causing the problems in the Middle East and that the Palestinians are the innocent victims.
When dealing with Israeli military attacks, Israel is always identified by name, while the Palestinian perpetrators of violence are rarely identified as Palestinians. Furthermore, Israelis are usually never identified as the victims, while Palestinians are almost always identified as those being killed.
Headlines are meant to capture the reader's attention and often determine whether people choose to read an article at all. In many instances, the headline is the only information readers derive about a story. Moreover, since the headline precedes other details, it greatly influences the reader’s interpretation of information that follows in the story.
Check out the next headline about violence in the Middle East..... you will see a distinct bias in the way the headline describes the event

And Who Were the 7 Palestinians That Were Killed?

Were the 7 Palestinians who were killed children on a bus going to school? A pregnant mother and her daughter driving to the market? An elderly man going to be with friends for the day?

No, one was a terrorist who planned bus bombings killing innocent civilians, two were transporting explosives, two were armed Palestinians, and a sixth was the victim of road rage by an Israeli citizen who felt his life threatened.

Sadly, I doubt very much the St Pete Times is the only newspaper guilty of this.

Loving America

I have always loved this quotation. A recent conversation brought it to mind and I felt the need to post it here:

“They [conservatives] love America the way a four-year-old loves her mommy. Liberals love America like grown-ups. To a four-year-old, everything Mommy does is wonderful and anyone who criticizes Mommy is bad. Grown-up love means actually understanding what you love, taking the good with the bad, and helping your loved one grow. Love takes attention and work and is the best thing in the world.”

- Al Franken, “Lies And The Lying Liars Who Tell Them"

Dvar Torah - Sukkot

In honor of the yahrzeit of Jack Roth I offered the following dvar Torah during mincha at the Women's League Seminary Synogogue here at JTS:

This week we begin the festival of Sukkot. The Torah described in Numbers 29.12-39 the sacrifices that were to be offered in the Temple during this festival. What stands out when reading these verses is the staggering number of animals to be offerred during the 8 days of Sukkot: 98 Lambs and 70 bulls in total. To give some perspective Pesach requires a total of only 16 bulls and no other holidays requires more than 2. The question then is, why are we asked to offer 70 bulls on Sukkot?
The Talmud (Sukkah 55b) tells us that the 70 Bulls represent the 70 gentile nations of the world and that on Sukkot, the festival of thanksgiving, Israel offers these bulls on behalf of the gentile nations just in case they forget to be grateful to God. We are told that reminding other nations to be grateful to God is one of Israel’s tasks in the world. Rabbi JH Hertz in his commentary on the Torah puts forth the idea that more than just a thanksgiving sacrifice, these bulls are meant as an atonement for all mankind. Now this shouldn’t come as too much of a shock, after all doesn’t God tell us through His prophet Isaiah that we shall be “a light to the nations,” which many believe to mean that we shall be the instrument by which God redeams the world?
But what does that mean for us? Through our various studies and chosen careers, most of us are here at JTS to strengthen the Jewish People, fortify our communitites, and ensure the continuation of Judaism and Jewish culture in some way. I would say that one of the lessons of these verses is that we should keep in mind that we do not do these things solely for thier own sake. We as Jews have a mission in this world. We are charged with being the instrument by which the world is brought closer to the God of Abraham. And to be sure, for this to happen the Jewish people and Judaism must survive. But we should be on guard against ignoring the rest of the nations of the world. They need us.

I leave you with the words of Hillel the Elder:

“If I am not for me, who will be?
If I am only for myself, what am I?
And if not now, when?”

Knocking on Teshuvah's Door

Yudel reports on Bob Dylan's Yom Kippur activities:

Bob Dylan showed up for Yom Kippur services yesterday morning at Adath Israel in St Paul, MN, an Orthodox congregation with a strong Chabad tilt.

He received the third aliyah, says a source, and returned in the evening for the concluding Neilah service.

Whether he joined in the traditional Chabad singing of "Napoleon's March", and whether he was dressed in rags for the melody, has not yet been ascertained.

Nice to hear Bob is still a part of the tribe.

Also from YudelLine:

The Washington Times, writing on Pop psalmists, includes this wonderful quote by Scott M. Marshall, author of "Restless Pilgrim":

Obviously, Dylan's words aren't part of the canon, but Dylan is a Jewish poet and that puts him in the same family as those who penned the actual biblical Psalms.

Which I thought was far too cool a quote not to repost here.

I would be remiss if I didn't take this opportunity to recommend Yudel's (aka Larry Yudelson) Tangled up in Jews, a page about Bob Dylan and Judaism (and Bob Dylan's Judaism).

For Jack Roth

Today, the 12th day of תשרי, which began at sundown September 26th, marks the first anniversary of the passing of my dear friend Jack Roth. Jack was a great supporter of the Jewish National Fund and the State of Israel. In his honor I have already donated this year to the JNF, and encourage others to do so as well. Through the JNF website you can have a tree (or trees) planted in the name of a loved one to commemorate any simcha (bar/bat mitzvah, wedding, graduation, et cetera) or as a memorial commemorating a yahrzeit, as I have done for Jack. If you would just like to donate and have no special occassion or person to honor, feel free to plant a tree in the name of Jack Roth.

I miss you, Jack.

Internet Monkeys

I'm not sure if I should be insulted or not...

"We've all heard that a million monkeys banging on a million typewriters will eventually reproduce the entire works of Shakespeare. Now, thanks to the Internet, we know this is not true."

-- Robert Wilensky

A Question for "President" Bush

From Primer:

President Bush's speech to the UN General Assembly on Tuesday, September 21st, included the following:

"........Israel should impose a settlement freeze, dismantle unauthorized outposts, end the daily humiliation of the Palestinian people......"

written By Reuven Koret, Israel Insider September 23, 2004:

When an Israeli border policemen, Mamoya Tahio and Menashe Komemi approached Zainab Ali Issa, 18, asking for identification and then demanding that she be searched, is this what you were referring to yesterday at the United Nations as the "daily humiliation" of the Palestinian people?

So what was the poor girl to do? She had come all the way from Jenin with her explosives. She was no doubt carrying her bag as a fashion accessory. How dare those nasty Israeli bullies stop her and ask her what was in the bag?

How dare they stop her from approaching that hitchhiking stop packed with Israeli soldiers! Maybe she wanted a ride?

So she did what any nice Palestinian girl would do under the circumstances. She pressed her detonator, blew herself to hell, and murdered her inquisitors... When a woman walks by fully covered in the garb of traditional religion, there is a natural tendency to respect their modesty and privacy.

The "disrespect" of two heroic border policeman, their "humiliation" of this ticking bomb, saved the lives of at least a dozen people.

One has to wonder, listening to you scold Israel from the podium of the United Nations: have you no shame? Are you not afraid that the listening delegates will laugh at the sheer hypocrisy of you, the Commander in Chief of armed forces which daily, in the streets of Iraq, and in the homes of Iraqi families, submit the locals to searches and worse, not hesitating to shoot first and ask questions later when a suspicious character approaches a checkpoint or looks askance at a patrol?

Of course you are not afraid, because you know that the listening delegates are part of the same hypocritical double standard...

The heroes are the young border policeman who pay with their lives to save the lives of others. Who guard the checkpoints under terrible conditions. And yes, who live and build in the heartland of the Bible that belongs, and has always belonged to the Jewish people!

How dare you tell us to freeze our growth? How dare you insult us by accusing us of "humiliating" a people when all we are doing, and have always done, is to defend ourselves against murderers.

You seem to fancy that the Palestinians really want peace rather than to end Israel and kill Israelis, even if their leaders and people say so and do so? ...

So, President Bush, this is what we say: if protecting ourselves means "humiliating" others by stopping potential bombers and searching them, then let us humiliate them daily, 24/7.

President Bush: if you really fancy yourself the leader of the global war on terrorism, then please: stop resorting to this embarrassing double standard where you are unwilling to call the master terrorists by name, where you don't demand that the Palestinian fight terrorists in their midst, where you single out for criticism Israel -- the world leader in the fight against terror, historically in terms of counter-terror techniques, and the nation on the front lines and the most risk from terror.

When you say these shameful and foolish things in front of a shameless world, Mr. President, with all due respect, you do not earn the respect of your people, or ours.

When you obscure the difference between good and evil, you undermine the moral basis of your just cause.

When you accuse us of "daily humiliations" as we give our lives to save lives, Mr. President, you only humiliate yourself.

Read the full article here.

The Learned Elders of Wal-Mart

I just read a story in the news about Wal-Mart withdrawing the old Jew-Hating classic The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion from sale on its website. This is in and of itself not big news as something similar happened on Amazon.com not too long ago. What struck me as disturbing was:

The description, now withdrawn from the Wal-Mart Web site, said, "If ... The Protocols are genuine (which can never be proven conclusively), it might cause some of us to keep a wary eye on world affairs. We neither support nor deny its message. We simply make it available for those who wish a copy." ... Wal-Mart had no immediate response to questions on whether the company wrote the description of the book on the Web site or if it came from the publisher.

What? There is virtually no question that the Elders is a forgery. Nobody in thier right might would even suggest otherwise. This copy almost reads as an subtle endorsement of the book. And even if Wal-Mart didn't write the description, don't they read this stuff before they post it to thier website? Or do they just automatically post and endorse anything a publsher has to say?

Mexican Church Silences Cell Phones

Via Religious News Online:

MONTERREY, Mexico (Reuters) - Some Mexican churches are using state-of-the-art technology developed by Israeli electronic warfare experts to silence cell phones that ring during mass, church officials said on Tuesday.

Four churches in the northern city of Monterrey, which lies some two hours by car south of the Texas border, are using equipment made by Israeli telecoms equipment firm Netline Communications Technologies to block incoming calls during services.

The Tel Aviv-based company was set up in 1998 by former military and defense industry specialists to develop mobile telephone jamming systems, mainly for the security industry.

"Before we had the system, it was very uncomfortable hearing calls coming in during the celebration of mass. But now it's 95 percent quiet," said Bulmaro Carranza, a caretaker at the city's Baroque-style Sacred Heart church.

The signal-jamming equipment is packed into two wall-mounted boxes the size of small hi-fi speakers, with one beside the altar and the other at the church entrance.

Switched on just before the start of every service, the system causes a "no signal" message to be displayed on worshipers' phones, but causes them no lasting damage.

"We believe that we were the first church in Mexico to use this technology," Carranza said.

"Now we are getting calls from all over the country to see how it can be installed."

Read the full story here.

I know a few shuls that could make good use of such a device. Hmm I wonder if it would be kosher for Shabbat?

What Kerry Won't Tell America

Here's an interesting piece by Richard Gwyn of the Toronto Star:

Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry has just taken the ultimate dare of American politics: He's started telling them the truth about Iraq. But only a part of the truth. So he's not going to be heard."At every step of the road he (President George W. Bush) has taken the wrong turn and he has led us in the wrong direction," Kerry said in a major foreign policy speech at New York University this week.The president, had "misled, miscalculated and mismanaged every aspect of this (Iraq) undertaking."In Iraq, Americans were fighting "a growing insurgency in an ever-widening war." As a result of what was happening there, "The world is a more dangerous place for America and Americans." All absolutely true, and well said, if very belatedly so...

But while all this and a great deal more that's now going on in Iraq is exactly as Kerry told it, he couldn't bring himself to tell it like it really is. And this is that the U.S. is facing failure in Iraq, just as it had to face it more than three decades ago in Vietnam...

In the end, there are only two ways to get out of a quagmire. To dig furiously, in the hope of eventually finding firm ground. Or just to get out.Bush's policy is the first. It won't work since he is, indeed, performing like a recruiting sergeant for Al Qaeda. Kerry's policy, though, is not the second option. It's instead the worst option of all. It's a bit of both. He would start withdrawing troops next year and bring them all out in four years, or by the end of his first term.During the Vietnam War, public opinion turned against the conflict once Americans realized they were sacrificing their lives in a futile mission.This time, although far less confidently than at its start, public opinion still supports the war in Iraq. The reason is that Americans remain convinced that cost of a withdrawal would be an increase in attacks upon them in their own homeland.Until that attitude changes, Kerry cannot tell his voters the truth — that they've lost the war and the sooner they turn their backs on it the better.So he tells them only part of the truth. When he says it, he doesn't sound like he really believes it. Which is why Americans — as yet — don't believe in him.

Read the full article Here.

What Do You Call God?

There is a servey located at the JTS Distance Learning Project in which you can indicate which of the many listed names of God you feel most comfortable with, and which ones you don't feel comfortable with. I found this to be a very interesting excercise as it really makes you consider how you view God. The current results of the servey are:

Top Ten (votes +)	Least Favorite Five (votes -)
Creator of Heaven and Earth קונה שמים וארץ ‎(3313) Adonai (My Lord) אדוני ‎(3133) Absolute Rest ‎(3041) Ancient God ותיק אלוהי קדם ‎(3021) Father of Mercy אב הרחמים ‎(2974) Everlasting God א-ל עולם ‎(2967) Everlasting King מלך עולם ‎(2948) Everlasting Rock צור עולמים ‎(2944) Acquirer of All קונה הכל ‎(2922) Everlasting Arms זרועות עולם ‎(2849)	El, The God of the Myriads of Israel א-ל' אלפי ישראל ‎(374) Lord, Man of War ה' איש מלחמה ‎(337) Acquirer of All קונה הכל ‎(289) The Fear of Isaac פחד יצחק ‎(275) Eternal One of Israel נצח ישראל ‎(257) Fulfillment of All Valid Ideals ‎(234) Hosts צבאות ‎(226) Reviver of the Dead מחיה המתים ‎(213) The Lord Who Hides His Face ‎(209) Came Into Being ‎(206)

To participate in the servey, visit this page.

Redemption of the World Begins with You and Me

From the JTS Distance Learning Project:

P A R A S H A C O M M E N T A R Y
Yom Kippur 5765
Chancellor Ismar Schorsch
September 25, 2004 10 Tishrei 5765

This week's commentary was written by Dr. Ismar Schorsch, chancellor of The Jewish Theological Seminary.

Read the Parashah Read the Haftarah

The redemption of the world is easier than you think. It starts with you and me. At least that is the empowering conviction of Rabbi Hanina bar Hama, a Palestinian sage in the first half of the third century. A defender of intellectual property, he declaimed that "Anyone who transmits something (davar) in the name of the person who said it first brings redemption to the world" (BT Megillah 15a). The proposition is not quite as grandiloquent as it sounds. Rabbi Hanina cites a striking scriptural prooftext from the scroll of Esther.

After Ahasuerus selected Esther to be his queen, Mordecai, her foster father and cousin, discovered a plot to kill the king by two of his eunuchs. He reported the threat to Esther, who in turn, informed the king "in Mordecai's name" (Esther 2:22)' Ahasuerus, of course, had the two conspirators dispatched. More importantly, the king's debt to Mordecai was recorded in the annals of his reign, to come to his attention at a later and crucial juncture in the effort to rescue Persian Jewry from the clutches of Haman. Had Esther claimed all the credit for herself for revealing the plot, Persian Jewry might have perished. The unintended consequence of a tad of truthfulness, saved an entire nation.

The spirit of Rabbi Hanina informs the long confession that we recite five times during the fast of Yom Kippur, beginning with the afternoon service (Minhah), the day before. Formulated in the plural and arranged alphabetically, the al het consists of a catalogue of forty-four sins, two for each Hebrew letter. The sins listed tend to be generic rather than specific. This latitude gives each of us the space we need to find our place. Fully one quarter, if not more, of the sins for which we atone, deal with the abuse of speech. For example, "idle talk, offensive language, insincere confession, unclean lips, foolish talk, slander, fraud and falsehood, gossip and swearing falsely." The disproportionate number is a mirror of the human condition. Our greatest gift — the ability to communicate — can both harm and heal, bind together and break apart. If truth, and not ego or malice, governed our speech, the concentric circles of our world would bear witness to far less strife. The author of Proverbs did not exaggerate when he observed that "death and life are in the power of the tongue" (18:21).

Nor did Rabbi Hanina. Who of us is not daily tempted to obscure our indebtedness to others in order to enhance our public persona? Plagiarism takes many forms and is hardly restricted to students who are indolent or stressed out. Each act of self-restraint enriches the world with a fraction of redemption. Rabbi Hanina, who lived but a century-and-a-half after the destruction of the Temple, was a messainist of sorts. He believed that what delayed the coming of the messiah was a surfeit of presumptuous individuals (BT Sanhedrin 98a). The key to national restoration was not the conquest of others, but self-conquest. Rabbi Hanina strove to redirect militant messianism into personal piety. The victories to be won were inner ones.

God's very own seal, he contended, bore the word emet (truth) on it (BT Shabbat 55a). By implication, the claim imposed on humans the obligation to emulate the divine attribute of truthfulness no less than the divine attribute of compassion. Every facet of our lives ought to manifest that highest of values. And each morning, as we ready ourselves for prayer, we verbalize the goal: "We should always revere God in private as in public. We should acknowledge the truth in our hearts and practice it in thought as in deed" (Siddur Sim Shalom for Shabbat and Festivals 66). That is, to revere God is to be truthful, first to ourselves and then to others. As long as we deceive ourselves, we will end up deceiving others.

The prayer that follows that daily admonition is a précis of the High Holy Day liturgy — an attempt to shrink the ego that so readily ferments into bluster and arrogance. Truthfulness is a function of modesty. Silently, we acknowledge to God that we are neither powerful nor wise nor righteous, that our lives lack significance and our actions, meaning. "Human preeminence over beasts is an illusion when all is seen as futility." To make room for God in our lives we need to contract ourselves. A soul crowded out by ego has lost its capacity to live by truth.

Long before Rabbi Hanina, Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel, a contemporary of the Temple's destruction, averred that "The world rests on three things: on justice, on truth and on peace" (Pirkei Avot1:18). Given his disordered time, his sentiment is entirely understandable. But from the perspective of distance, I would argue that justice and peace are a consequence of truth and that, indeed, the world rests on truth alone. Not only is truth God's seal; it is also the fundament of human society. We discard it at our peril, for truth is a prerequisite of trust, without which neither justice nor peace is attainable. Hence, thrice daily we conclude the Amidah (the silent devotion), by seeking God's help in keeping our tongues from evil and our lips from guile. Redemption, like life itself, begins in miniature.

I wish you a favorable verdict and an easy fast.

Gemar tov v'Shabbat shalom

Ismar Schorsch

The publication and distribution of Dr. Schorsch's commentary on Yom Kippur 5765 are made possible by a generous grant from Rita Dee and Harold (z"l) Hassenfeld.

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Copyright © 2004 Jewish Theological Seminary
Comments to learn@jts web team.

Bush Can't Tell Terrorists Apart

From The New York Times:

President Bush might have been able to say it was simply a slip of the tongue when he confused two terrorists in a campaign speech Monday in New Hampshire. Trouble is, he's made the same misstatement at least 10 times before.

During remarks in Derry, N.H., Bush said the late terrorist Abu Nidal killed Leon Klinghoffer, a 69-year-old Jewish American who died after being tossed -- along with his wheelchair -- off a hijacked cruise liner named Achille Lauro in 1985.

``Do you remember Abu Nidal?'' Bush asked the crowd. ``He's the guy that killed Leon Klinghoffer. Leon Klinghoffer was murdered because of his religion. Abu Nidal was in Baghdad, as was his organization.''

He repeated the mistake Monday evening at a campaign event in New York City: ``Abu Nidal was a cold-blooded terrorist killer who killed Leon Klinghoffer.''

Actually, it was Abul Abbas, the leader of a violent Palestinian group, who killed Klinghoffer... Bush's mistake, overlooked for weeks, is buried in his stump speech -- in the section where he makes a case that Saddam Hussein had links to terrorist groups. Indeed, Abu Nidal is believed to have had connections to the former Iraqi leader. But he didn't kill Klinghoffer.

Which should give provide pleanty of fodder for the antisemites who already blame everything on the Jews...

The 100 Most Frequently Challenged Books of 1990–2000

I found this list simultaniously facinating and disturbing.

From the ALA's Banned Books Week site:

The 100 Most Frequently Challenged Books

of 1990–2000

1. Scary Stories (Series) by Alvin Schwartz
2. Daddy’s Roommate by Michael Willhoite
3. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
4. The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier
5. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
6. Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
7. Harry Potter (Series) by J.K. Rowling
8. Forever by Judy Blume
9. Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson
10. Alice (Series) by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
11. Heather Has Two Mommies by Leslea Newman
12. My Brother Sam is Dead by James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier
13. The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
14. The Giver by Lois Lowry
15. It’s Perfectly Normal by Robie Harris
16. Goosebumps (Series) by R.L. Stine
17. A Day No Pigs Would Dieby Robert Newton Peck
18. The Color Purple by Alice Walker
19. Sex by Madonna
20. Earth’s Children (Series) by Jean M. Auel
21. The Great Gilly Hopkins by Katherine Paterson
22. A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle
23. Go Ask Alice by Anonymous
24. Fallen Angels by Walter Dean Myers
25. In the Night Kitchen by Maurice Sendak
26. The Stupids (Series) by Harry Allard
27. The Witches by Roald Dahl
28. The New Joy of Gay Sex by Charles Silverstein
29. Anastasia Krupnik (Series) by Lois Lowry
30. The Goats by Brock Cole
31. Kaffir Boy by Mark Mathabane
32. Blubber by Judy Blume
33. Killing Mr. Griffin by Lois Duncan
34. Halloween ABC by Eve Merriam
35. We All Fall Down by Robert Cormier
36. Final Exit by Derek Humphry
37. The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
38. Julie of the Wolves by Jean Craighead George
39. The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
40. What’s Happening to my Body? Book for Girls: A Growing-Up Guide for Parents & Daughters by Lynda Madaras
41. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
42. Beloved by Toni Morrison
43. The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton
44. The Pigman by Paul Zindel
45. Bumps in the Night by Harry Allard
46. Deenie by Judy Blume
47. Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes
48. Annie on my Mind by Nancy Garden
49. The Boy Who Lost His Face by Louis Sachar
50. Cross Your Fingers, Spit in Your Hat by Alvin Schwartz
51. A Light in the Attic by Shel Silverstein
52. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
53. Sleeping Beauty Trilogy by A.N. Roquelaure (Anne Rice)
54. Asking About Sex and Growing Up by Joanna Cole
55. Cujo by Stephen King
56. James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl
57. The Anarchist Cookbook by William Powell
58. Boys and Sex by Wardell Pomeroy
59. Ordinary People by Judith Guest
60. American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis
61. What’s Happening to my Body? Book for Boys: A Growing-Up Guide for Parents & Sons by Lynda Madaras
62. Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret by Judy Blume
63. Crazy Lady by Jane Conly
64. Athletic Shorts by Chris Crutcher
65. Fade by Robert Cormier
66. Guess What? by Mem Fox
67. The House of Spirits by Isabel Allende
68. The Face on the Milk Carton by Caroline Cooney
69. Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
70. Lord of the Flies by William Golding
71. Native Son by Richard Wright
72. Women on Top: How Real Life Has Changed Women’s Fantasies by Nancy Friday
73. Curses, Hexes and Spells by Daniel Cohen
74. Jack by A.M. Homes
75. Bless Me, Ultima by Rudolfo A. Anaya
76. Where Did I Come From? by Peter Mayle
77. Carrie by Stephen King
78. Tiger Eyes by Judy Blume
79. On My Honor by Marion Dane Bauer
80. Arizona Kid by Ron Koertge
81. Family Secrets by Norma Klein
82. Mommy Laid An Egg by Babette Cole
83. The Dead Zone by Stephen King
84. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
85. Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison
86. Always Running by Luis Rodriguez
87. Private Parts by Howard Stern
88. Where’s Waldo? by Martin Hanford
89. Summer of My German Soldier by Bette Greene
90. Little Black Sambo by Helen Bannerman
91. Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett
92. Running Loose by Chris Crutcher
93. Sex Education by Jenny Davis
94. The Drowning of Stephen Jones by Bette Greene
95. Girls and Sex by Wardell Pomeroy
96. How to Eat Fried Worms by Thomas Rockwell
97. View from the Cherry Tree by Willo Davis Roberts
98. The Headless Cupid by Zilpha Keatley Snyder
99. The Terrorist by Caroline Cooney
100. Jump Ship to Freedom by James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier

And these are the 10 most frequently challenged books of 2003:

1. Alice series, for sexual content, using offensive language, and being unsuited to age group.
2. Harry Potter series, for its focus on wizardry and magic.
3. "Of Mice and Men" by John Steinbeck, for using offensive language.
4. "Arming America: The Origins of a National Gun Culture" by Michael A. Bellesiles, for inaccuracy.
5. "Fallen Angels" by Walter Dean Myers, for racism, sexual content, offensive language, drugs and violence.
6. "Go Ask Alice" by Anonymous, for drugs.
7. "It's Perfectly Normal" by Robie Harris, for homosexuality, nudity, sexual content and sex education.
8. "We All Fall Down" by Robert Cormier, for offensive language and sexual content.
9. "King and King" by Linda de Haan, for homosexuality.
10. "Bridge to Terabithia" by Katherine Paterson, for offensive language and occult/satanism.
    

The site also contains links to information on Why are Books Challenged? , Who Challenges Books? , What's the Difference Between a Challenge and a Banning? , How is the List of Most Challenged Books Tabulated?, Dealing with Challenges and Reporting a Challenge.

Banned Books Week

Just a reminder that Banned Books Week is almost here.
Thanks to Tamara Siler Jones for the reminder via Neil Gaiman's blog.

The US is Not Really Fighting Terrorism

I ran across this excellent editorial by Rachel Neuwirth at Arutz Sheva:

Claims that America is engaged in a total war against terrorism are greatly exaggerated. President George Bush cannot selectively fight some terrorists, while ignoring or even supporting other kinds of terrorists, and still claim to be fighting a War on Terror. Bush cannot declare that we oppose all who practice terrorism, including all their supporters, in theory, and then employ a double standard in practice. We cannot say that the 9/11 bombers are terrorists, but that those who blow up busses in Israel are not terrorists because they are engaged in a political process, as was claimed by Secretary of State Colin Powell. This double standard has been a long-term element in US policy, and is not limited to the current Bush Administration and the equivocation in its so-called war on terror.

President Bush is seeking Osama bin-Laden, dead or alive, primarily because he is accused of having attacked us on 9/11, not because he is a menace in general. But at the same time, President Bush is protecting Yasser Arafat, the father of modern terrorism, by demanding that Israel not harm him or even exile him...

America should at least declare moral clarity even if we cannot actually undertake the impossible task of being the world's policeman. We, as a superpower, are more free than other nations to at least speak the truth without having to fear reprisals from powers stronger than ourselves. Unfortunately, we have consistently failed to even speak the moral truth, and so we are seriously compromised in our self-declared war on terror.

[Read the Entire Editorial]

Dylan Wears Tefillin

From The Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles:

Like Bob Dylan a decade before him, writer Neal Karlen turned up on Rabbi Manis Friedman’s doorstep in St. Paul, Minn., in desperate search of his soul. It was three years ago that Karlen hoped the renowned Chasidic scholar might be able to provide him with some of the existential answers he’d given Dylan, when Friedman brought the pop icon back to Judaism after he’d spent a decade as an evangelical Christian.

Karlen, who had broken the Dylan story as a Rolling Stone writer in New York, had alchemized from a devout, kosher-keeping youth intent on the rabbinate into the title of his new book, a shanda, "a disgrace to Judaism." "Shanda’s" subtitle tells the rest: "The Making and Breaking of a Self-Loathing Jew" (Simon and Schuster).

"I’d gone to 10 years of Hebrew school four days a week, tutored hundreds of kids in Torah and haftorah reading for their bar or bat mitzvahs, studied with Rabbi Jacob Neusner at Brown [University] and was a whisper away from going to rabbinical school," Karlen said on a recent visit to Los Angeles, where part of the book takes place during the High Holidays. Instead, he was lured by Newsweek magazine to a job in Manhattan, where he discovered the world of glitzy, fast-paced journalism...

As he neared 40, Karlen felt a nagging sense of emptiness and lack of connection — but to what, he didn’t know.

Enter Friedman.

"Besides the depth of his scholarship, his authenticity and humility are remarkable," Karlen said of his mentor.

Centering on Karlen’s weekly meetings with Friedman, "Shanda" reads much like "Tuesdays With Morrie," but has both a wry irreverence and a seething edge.

"I felt I had to be honest," Karlen continued. If I wanted my questioning of faith to resonate with other assimilated Jews as deeply as it did with me, I couldn’t gloss over what a schmuck I’d become."

...Through it all, Friedman had only one requirement in order for Karlen to study with him: He had to put on tefillin. When Karlen still balked, saying he didn’t want to cut open his grandfather’s nearly century-old tefillin to see if they were still kosher, Friedman knew just how to convince his pupil.

"Dylan," Friedman said, like a Chasidic rapper, "wears tefillin."

Thought-Dreams HQ Cam

Thought I'd share a picture of the luxurious Thought-Dreams HQ here in NYC:

PA Clergy Call for Extermination of Jews

This was posted yesterday at Religious News on-Line:

PA Clergy Call For Genocide of Jews

Twice in three days, Palestinian television has shown religious leaders calling for the mass killing of Jews.

Both clerics said such a slaughter is a necessary stage in history and must be carried out quickly, reported Palestinian Media Watch. Each cited the same Hadith, Islamic tradition attributed to Muhammad.

Palestinian leaders traditionally have taught that the following Hadith applies today:

The Hour [Resurrection] will not take place until the Muslims fight the Jews and kill them. And the Jews will hide behind the rock and tree, and the rock and tree will say: oh Muslim, oh servant of Allah, this is a Jew behind me, come and kill him!

Says Palestinian Media Watch: "This teaching may well be a dominant motivating factor that drives terror against Israeli civilians, because it presents the killing of Jews as a religious obligation, not related to the conflict over borders, but as something inherent to Allah's world."

Sheik Ibrahim Madiras' sermon of last Friday was broadcast the same day on PA TV.
Madiras declared, "The Prophet said: The Resurrection will not take place until the Muslims fight the Jews, and the Muslims kill them. The Muslims will kill the Jews, rejoice [in it], rejoice in Allah's Victory. The Muslims will kill the Jews, and he will hide.

Not exactly what I would call reassuring. But it does rather refute the idea that the PA is a bunch of innocents pushed to violence by the evil Israelis.

Our Father, Our King

From Chabad.org's Daily Dose mailing list:

B"H



Our Father, Our King

--------------------



Rosh Hashanah, the Baal Shem Tov taught, is a game of hide and seek. G-d hides, we seek.



But where can G-d hide? Wherever you go, there He is. As the Zohar says, "There is no place void of Him." So perhaps what the Baal Shem Tov meant is more like peek-a-boo -- when the parent hides behind his or her own fingers. So too, G-d hides within the guise of an awesome, indifferent king, judging His subjects strictly by the book until the most sublime angels shiver in dread.



And we seek. We seek the father within the stern voice. We are the small child who climbs into the king's arms, tears off the mask and says, "Daddy!"



Which is just what he was waiting for.

The Knob's Brain Freeze

From Plum Crazy:

I just watched ESPN’s 25 Biggest Sports Blunders of the last 25 years. Inexplicably, they let Chuck Knoblauch off the hook for his total brain freeze against the Indians in the 1998 ALCS. It can never be said often enough, even six years later: “Pick up the ball. Pick up the freaking ball!”

I would have to second that. While I did generally like Chuck "The Knob" Knoblauch as a player, just the memory of this moment makes my blood pressure rise. At the time I was close to having a stroke, so things have improved.

Become a Blessing

From the JTS: Quote of the Week:

"First become a blessing to yourself that you may be a blessing to others."

- Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch,
From Moments of the Spirit,
Compiled by Dov Peretz Elkins

Parashat Hashavuah @ Learn.JTSA.EDU

learn.jtsa.edu has, among other great features, a weekly commentary on the week's Torah Portion by JTS Chancelor Rabbi Ismar Schorsch, which can be found on the Parashat Hashavuah page. There are also links to pages where you can read the text of the Parashah and Haftarah.

L'Shanah Tovah

שנה תבה
Shanah Tovah!

May 5765 be everything you wish it to be!

שלום
אליהו בן אברהם ושרה

Kinky, Bob and Chabad.

Now here's something you don't see every day. Video footage of Kinky Friedman--the original Texas Jewboy--backed up by Bob Dylan--aka Shabtai Zisel ben Avraham v'Rachel Riva--on guitar at a Chabad telethon!

Watch the Real Video Clip!

Courtesy of TVTalkin.com

"Remember Us Unto Life" on WNYC and the Web

I just received this information from JTSA:

Don't miss this opportunity to hear Rabbi Ismar Schorsch, Chancellor of The Jewish Theological Seminary, in discussion with veteran radio host Larry Josephson about the history, liturgy and customs of the High Holy Days, and the value of these ancient rituals in the modern age.

Sunday, September 19, 2004 at 6:00 p.m.
WNYC Radio 93.9FM

Originally aired in September 2003, this broadcast can also be accessed at http://learn.jtsa.edu/topics/luminaries/interview/what_hhd2003/
For further information contact publicity@jtsa.edu

PRIMER

I have been aware of the existence of PRIMER (Promoting Responsability in Mid-East Reporting) since my time in Tampa, Florida (One of its founders, the late Jack Roth, was a dear friend of mine), but was unaware until today that they had a website.

From the PRIMER Mission Statement:
Is a not-for-profit, non-partisan grass roots volunteer media watch group, established In 1992. Our purpose is to counter anti-Jewish and anti Israel written, visual and oral messages through media watch media response and dissemination of complete and accurate information.

Thier website has an archives of articles--including a transcript of Rabbi Joel Wasser's moving sermon from Rosh Hashannah 5763 regarding Daniel Pearl--and a page where you can sign up for thier e-mail action network.

Check them out. No, do more than that. Check them out and take action!

Remembering Johnny Cash

Today marks the first anniversary of the death of Johnny Cash. I can't really put words together to describe Johnny, so I'm just going to mark the occassion by posting the statement Bob Dylan made soon after Johnny's death:

"I was asked to give a statement on Johnny's passing and thought about writing a piece instead called Cash is King, because that is the way I really feel. In plain terms, Johnny was and is the North Star; you could guide your ship by him - the greatest of the greats, then and now. I first met him in 1962, or 63, and saw him a lot in those years. In some kind of way he was with me more than people I see every day.

There wasn't much music media in the early 1960s, and Sing Out! was the magazine covering all things folk in character. The editors had published a letter chastising me for the direction my music was going. Johnny wrote the magazine back an open letter telling the editors to shut up and let me sing, that I knew what I was doing. This was before I had ever met him, and the letter meant the world to me. I've kept the magazine to this day.

Of course, I knew of him before he ever heard of me. In 1955 or 56, I Walk the Line played all summer on the radio, and it was different from anything else you had ever heard. The record sounded like a voice from the middle of the earth. It was so powerful and moving. It was profound, and so was the tone of it, every line; deep and rich, awesome and mysterious all at once. I Walk the Line had a monumental presence and a certain type of majesty that was humbling. Even a simple line like "I find it very, very easy to be true" can take your measure. We can remember that and see how far we fall short of it. Johnny wrote thousands of lines like that. Truly, he is what the land and country are all about, the heart and soul of it personified and what it means to be here; and he said it all in plain English. I think we can have recollections of him, but we can't define him any more than we can define a fountain of truth, light and beauty. If we want to know what it means to be mortal, we need look no further than the Man in Black. Blessed with a profound imagination, he used the gift to express all the various lost causes of the human soul.

This is a miraculous and humbling thing. Listen to him, and he always brings you to your senses. He rises high above all, and he'll never die or be forgotten, even by persons not yet born - especially those persons - and that is for ever."

The Chassidic Rebbe Name Generator

From The Chassidic Rebbe Name Generator:

You are very wise, humble and pious, John...
from this day forward you will now be known as the holy Reb Shlomo Zalman Yisraely Leys of Smolevichi , also known as the 'MarioBrother Rebbe'...now let your chassidish adventures begin, your talmidim are waiting!

or using my Hebrew name:

You are very wise, humble and pious, Eliyahu...
from this day forward you will now be known as the holy Reb Yechezkel Kalman ben Avraham vaSarah of Domanovo, also known as the 'BoysBander Rebbe'...now let your chassidish adventures begin, your talmidim are waiting!

Orthodox Monopoly Over?

Maariv International reports that the Israeli government is on the verge of formally recognizing Conservative and Reform conversions as valid. Previously only Orthodox conversions were recognised by the state, which often led to problems when converts wished to invoke the law of return:

During the discussion, Attorney General Meni Mazuz said that the state had no legal basis for refusing to recognize reform and conservative conversions carried out in Israel. He made it clear that such a policy could only be created by legislation legally enshrining orthodox conversions as the sole valid conversions in Israel. This would require amending the Law of Return. Such a step would be akin to opening a Pandora’s box, and could lead to a total schism between Israel and world Jewry, the majority of whom is not orthodox, as it would, in effect be enshrining orthodox Judaism as the only recognized and officially sanctioned form of Judaism in Israel.

At the end of the meeting the PM decided that the government would neither initiate nor support any such legislation, and that this would be the basis of the state’s response.

Deputy PM Justice Minister Yosef (Tomi) Lapid, leader of Shinui, which is committed to a policy of religious pluralism in Israel, confirmed these facts, via his spokesperson.

Starting with Aleph

For those who are trying to master basic Hebrew, you could do worse than to check out Staring with Aleph

STARTING WITH ALEPH is an innovative course that teaches Hebrew reading and basic Jewish values in an interactive fashion.

Lesson One (Breishit/In the Beginning) introduces the six letters of the Hebrew word "Breishit" and words formed by those letters through interactive exercises and a "multimedia midrash".

Lessons Two through Four present Jewish notions of time (Zman), place (Makom), and world (Olam), covering the entire alphabet by the end of Lesson Four.

The site does require Macromedia Flash, but is well worth taking the time to install if you don't already have it.

Jewish Ranting

Just stumbled onto this one via JewSchool:

JRants.com indexes a the headlines from a number of Jewish blogs on one easy to read page. An idea so good I'm suprised it hadn't been done before.

Don't Forget

"[Simon] Wiesenthal is often asked to explain his motives for becoming a Nazi hunter. According to Clyde Farnsworth in the New York Times Magazine (February 2, 1964), Wiesenthal once spent the Sabbath at the home of a former Mauthausen inmate, now a well-to-do jewelry manufacturer. After dinner his host said, "Simon, if you had gone back to building houses, you'd be a millionaire. Why didn't you?"

"You're a religious man," replied Wiesenthal. "You believe in God and life after death. I also believe. When we come to the other world and meet the millions of Jews who died in the camps and they ask us, 'What have you done?', there will be many answers. You will say, 'I became a jeweler', Another will say, I have smuggled coffee and American cigarettes', Another will say, 'I built houses', But I will say, 'I didn't forget you.'"

I think many of us should be wondering what we'll say to the victems of 9-11 when we see them next.

GOP and the Jews?

This was just posted over at JewSchool by mobius. Not much I can really add to it. I think he hits it pretty much on the head with this one:

Reuters reports,

Speakers at this week's Republican convention make their remarks at a wooden podium that some Jewish groups find offensive because its decorative panels appear to form the shape of a Christian cross.

A cross is even more visible in a waist-high gavel stand adjacent to the podium, leading some to question whether the party is trying to send a subtle message to its base among conservative Christians.

Meh. Same old shit. Don't forget, the GOP also declared Texas a Christian state back in June. Lest we also forget, of course, "The Jesus Landing Pad." Not that I'm looking to bash American Christian conservatives generally, but, frankly, I don't think Jews are really welcome in the GOP—just their votes and their dollars. At the end of the day, their motivations are laid bare: They just want us all to move to Israel so Jesus can come back and kill us.

I mean, really, we've only been allowed in their country clubs for how long now? Hell, we're still not welcome in some of the most prominent communities, where GOP membership tends to thrive among the wealthy WASPy elite. But hey, Bush is The Best Friend Israel Ever Had™ right? And that's all that matters, right, even if we are being used?

But, oh the irony of seeing Esther Jungreis preach from a Christian pulpit... I can hardly contain my amusement.

What Are You Waiting For?

via JTS's Quote of the Week:

How wonderful it is that no one need wait a single moment to start to improve the world.

Anne Frank
From Moments of the Spirit,
compiled by Dov Peretz Elkins