Al ha-nissim v'al ha-nifla'ot. . . . Even more Hanukkah links:
virtual hanukkiah lighting (scroll down), a
cranky Hanukkah FAQ, and an analysis of the
Macabees' battle strategies against Antiochus. Meanwhile Hillel students at the infamous Concordia U in Montreal
rally in
defense of their
organization and their Jewishness.
UPDATE: via a
lgf comment thread, a Concordia student just trying to get an education
gets pissed-off. Why is she so sensible? Clue:
Being an older student and having spent the last seven years at home raising kids and baking cookies, I was rather oblivious to Concordia's political climate.
Yup, living in the real world, i.e. the
non-campus world, will do something to your perspective on self-important student politicos.
And just when they were sitting down to a nice Chateau Blanc: Rantburg has the scoop on the latest synagogue attack in France, this time down south in the
Dordogne, where my family likes to vacation...
Hannukah -- beating back assimilation with a big stick: A newcomer to Kesher Talk's list of Jewish bloggers, Jonathan Edelstein examines Hannukah, whose last candles we light tonight, as a
victory of traditionalism against assimilation (and don't miss his later
clarification).
The shape of a possible Palestinian civil war:
Ha'aretz reports today on the power-struggle between Fatah and Hamas in the
Gaza Strip:
Shots were fired on Wednesday morning at the home of the most senior Hamas leader in the Strip. This was the climax of a series of incidents that started a few days ago when Hamas flexed its muscles in the Sabra neighborhood, declaring the establishment of a militia.
Fist fights and stabbings ensued, and five people were injured on the Al Azhar University campus in fights between the supporters of the two movements.
On Wednesday morning a Palestinian police officer and his 12-year-old son were shot to death, apparently by Hamas. A few hours later masked men - probably from Fatah - attacked the office of Mustafa Sawaf, a journalist who is affiliated with Hamas. Later on, shots were fired at the home of Hamas activist Abdel-Aziz Rantisi.
Sources in Gaza say these incidents reflect a show of power by Hamas and Fatah before they resume talks within the next few days. The talks are designed to reach a limited halt in Hamas terror attacks, but will also address the role that Hamas will play in the Palestinian government. Hamas is therefore trying to prove its strength now.
Adam Sandler does it best: I imagine that, one day, the traditional two prayers will be replaced with this
Hannukah song... Hopefully, we'll at least keep the shechechianu for the first night...
Cross-cultural rifts disappear for hannukah? They certainly seem to do so in
Geoof Meltzner's apartment.
European leftists speak out for Israel. The ever-brave
Oriana Fallaci led the way in the spring with her biting
The Rage and the Pride, castigating the intellectuals of Europe and especially her own beloved Italians for romanticising the Palestinians and demonizing the Israelis. Now a Spanish intellectual, Pilar Rahola, takes up the fight with an essay "In Favor of Israel":
The goal of our book is to launch a debate about Judeophobia in Spain. We are convinced that the current view of the conflict, so Manichaean—with the good, always the Palestinians, and the evil, always the Israelis—has deep roots. It comes from an ancient anti-Jewish feeling that exists in Spain and that also explains the history of Spain. . . . this is a provocative book in the face of totally pro-Arab thinking in Spain, that is completely uncritical of the mistakes of the Arab world in general and of the Palestinians in particular.
(via
lgf comments)
Miscalculating the costs of war: I took a second crack at the Medact anti-war report, and had an article in this past Sunday's
Washington Times.
Wondering what is up with this Festival of Lights? An NBC News affiliate has a Hannukah
FAQ sheet (via
Martin Devon)
Go, Speed Rabbi, Go! Rabbis are nothing if not fun-loving, right? At least that is the case for
Rabbi Pini Dunner, who took part in a contest for British TV show "Top Gear" to find the fastest preacher on four wheels. The Saatchi synagogue minister climbed into the driver’s seat after discovering that more than 100 vicars had taken up the challenge, but that no Jewish leaders had come forward to prove they were up to speed. Dunner said: “There were two Anglicans, a Hare Krishna, a Roman Catholic and a Buddhist, although, I have to tell you, he was Jewish as well.
“We discussed what kind of prayers we should be saying. I just said I wouldn’t mind surviving because my wife was going to cook me a very good dinner that night.”
Ice Cube, meet Ice Jew: Ross Filler, better known as Remedy, and other Jewish hip-hop artists, are enjoying massive success, infusing the Holocaust and Hamas into their lyrics. But they’re still the exception to the rule. The Jerusalem Report profiles
Jewish rap.
Making the better potato latke: The central food to Hannukah is the latke, the potato pancake (unless you are a Sefardi Jew, in which case you have a strange, Homer-Simpson-like attachment to jelly donuts). Want to know how to make them? Try the archives of the
rec.food.cuisine.jewish usenet group, AllRecipes.com's guide to the
perfect latke, the recipe of
Bicycle Bill, Caryn.com's
eclectic recipes, Nona Goldman's
family recipe, Latkes with
veggies and feta cheese, Joan Nathan's (the host of the PBS series Jewish Cooking in America)
recipe, or even the recipe from
Martha Stewart (including how to make caramel apple sauce).
Ich Bin Ein Berliner: Kaedtler’s bakery is bringing a new world of
kosher baked goods to Berlin. But what makes Kaedtler’s unusual is that it is owned and operated by a Protestant family.
“I am very proud of it,” said master baker Stefan Kaedtler, 33, in a recent interview with JTA. “It means traditional food according to Jewish belief is possible again” in Germany. “It is not the easiest way but it is the best.”
Now, in addition to his dairy cakes and cheese rolls, which are not kosher, Kaedtler sells pareve breads, rolls, croissants and challah, baked in a separate oven.
One recent Friday, Kaedtler delivered some 140 freshly baked challah, shiny brown and covered with poppy seeds, to the Israeli Embassy and two Jewish schools. By 10 a.m., he was back in the bakery, already having worked eight hours.
The Talmud is now online: For the first time, the entire text of the Babylonian Talmud as it appears in the standard Vilna edition is now available on-line thanks to a website called
E-Daf.
The site, conceived by Rabbi Dovid Kraus, contains all 2,711 pages of the Talmud, which are laid out using precisely the same format as printed versions of the text (known in Hebrew as Tzurat HaDaf).
Users can download or print out the desired page for free, enabling them to study at their convenience, even when they travel. In addition, the site contains links to English-language Talmud classes
Visit Israel by Internet using the
Jerusalem Archeological Park.
More Jews in Space: US space agency NASA has announced that Israel’s first astronaut, Ilan Ramon, will be
launched into space on January 16, 2003. Ramon’s space mission has been delayed for half a year, after small cracks were found in fuel pipes in the main engines of two orbiters. NASA said Ramon was due to be launched in the space shuttle “Columbia”, on mission number STS-107. The launch window will last two-and a half hours, the space agency noted.
Deals and $$: A lot of that $4 billion in military aid that Israel is seeking will be spent on American weaponry. Israel wants to purchase three Gulfstream 5 jets from General Dynamic to convert to signals intelligence aircraft to replace its decades-old aging fleet of Hawkeye surveillance aircraft. The deal is potentially worth hundreds of millions of dollars; the major loser is Boeing, whose 737 the Israeli air force judged to be less suitable as an "eye in the sky" platform. Under a deal between Washington and the Israeli Ministry of Defense, the United States will finance the purchase and the aircraft will be transferred to Israel for upgrading for SIGINT use. The electronic gear will be installed by Elta Electronics Industries, a subsidiary of Israel Aircraft Industries. (UPI Hears)
A distrubing march in South Africa: A march last Friday, arranged by the radical Muslim group Kibla to show Muslim solidarity with Palestinians “living under Israeli occupation,” has shocked the Jewish community of South Africa. The march coincided with the 55th anniversary of the 1947 United Nations partition resolution, which led to the establishment of the State of Israel — an event also marked an hour earlier by a pro-Israel Christian group demonstrating outside Parliament.
Two youths marching in support of the Palestinian cause wore Hezbollah headbands, followed by eight other young people carrying mock weapons. They led more than 300 demonstrators from a mosque close to downtown Cape Town to the U.S. Consulate, about a mile away. The marching children, some as young as seven, carried placards stating: “Death to America, death to Israel.” Marchers shouted, “One American, one bullet,” echoing a slogan using during the apartheid years to refer to white South Africans — one settler, one bullet.
The march organizers asked the protesters to stop chanting these slogans.
The children also staged a mock attack on a model of an Israeli tank and ripped apart an Israeli flag. Outside the U.S. Consulate, an Israeli flag was burned amid chants of “Death to Israel, death to Sharon.” (
JTA)
Nuclear, Free! My latest TCS column asks what really happened at
Three Mile Island over two decades ago.
Wanted: Editors for Open Directory Israel and Judaism categories. Open Directory is a non-commercial web cataloging project owned by Netscape, but run almost entirely by volunteer "editors" who take responsibility for particular sections. According to
The Forward, Netscape has acknowledged anti-Israel bias in its massive Web cataloguing service and has taken several steps to correct the situation, including dismissing the volunteer editor Netscape says was responsible.
Examples of bias:
. . . the directory contained a link to "Jewish Hate Groups," including Kach and Kahane Chai, but did not contain a corresponding category for Islamic extremists, nor any sites describing antisemitism among Muslims . . . a search of the term "Palestinian extremist" produced a list dominated by Jewish extremist organizations. . . . a Web site, listed fourth under a sub-category for "Suicide Bombing," written by a Muslim organization justifying the use of suicide bombers. . . . under a heading for "Background and History" of the "Israel-Palestine" conflict, 52 sites are listed; 27 are from a Palestinian perspective, 19 are from United Nations or newspaper sources, and only five from pro-Israel or Jewish sources. Of these five, four represent Israel's peace camp. Similarly, of the 32 sites listed under "Organizations" pertaining to the conflict, only nine are under Jewish or pro-Israel auspices.
It's humbling what one dedicated volunteer can do to influence an issue before anyone catches on. I shudder to think how many years these links have been up.
Got some time on your hands? Enjoy searching the web? Skilled at evaluating credibility of websites? Don't want the visibility and pressure of your own blog presence? Open Directory
needs you.
