Kesher Talk: 07/27/2003

Saturday, August 02, 2003

Ann Coulter is a passing fad Dept. Anne Applebaum - author of a recent history of Stalin's Gulag and nobody's fellow traveler - fisks Ann Coulter.

I have spent a great deal of time -- perhaps the better part of the last 10 years -- writing about communism, Stalinism and the West's relationship to both. Yet about halfway through Treason, an extended rant on these subjects, I felt a strong urge to get up, throw the book across the room, and join up with whatever Leninist-Trotskyite-Marxist political parties still exist in America. Even the company of Maoist insurgents would be more intellectually invigorating than that of Ann Coulter. More to the point, whatever side this woman is on, I don't want to be on it.

Can I say that Anne Applebaum is the female Charles Krauthammer? Read the whole thing. (via - you guessed it - Amygdala)

The timely death of U and Q Dept. I didn't know Art Buchwald was still around, but he just penned a very sensitive, caring condolence note to Saddam, and I'm proud of him. I'm not even going to try to quote any of it - just read the whole thing. (via Amygdala)

Friday, August 01, 2003

Nos Amis Les Français. A reprinted 1945 manual for GIs is a best-seller in France.

Although some subjects — such as black market profiteering and the decrepit towns — hail from another age, the wartime GIs’ ideas about the French are as modern as the “cheese-eating surrender monkeys” of Francophobe America and Britain in 2003. “I will never like the French. I hate the French,” says one gripe. The answer to the soldier is: “No one is asking you to like the French . . . Try first of all to understand them.”

. . . Other gripes include: “The French are always cheating us”, “the French are always criticising, there is always something wrong”, “the French are cynics”, “the French don’t wash” and “the French are morally rotten”. Sometimes the author agrees with the complaint, such as “the French drive like madmen”, but most of the time he — or she — provides an explanation.

“The Metro is indeed overcrowded, hot, damp, dirty and nauseating. You can smell garlic because the French, who are extraordinary cooks, use it more than we do,” the manual says. The French wash less than Americans because they are poorer and the Germans deprived them of soap. French women are forced to mask their uncleanliness with scent, says the writer.

(via Sgt. Stryker comments)

The 9 billion names of God. 300 proofs that God exists. Collect them all. (Protocols is working on a more specifically Jewish list, and is soliciting contributions.)

The yin and yang of Salon. On the one hand, doom-mongering about the Iraq war and its aftermath (nicely fisked). On the other hand, one of the few Hollywood celebrities living in the real world, James Woods. You can sit through an ad to access both articles, or just read the excerpts on Silent Running.

Jews in odd places: Wyoming: Eric Muller is one of an estimated 400 Jews in the expansive but sparsely populated state of Wyoming.

Eric is also a blogger, and the latest addition to Kesher Talk's Jewish blogs list to the left.

Good news from Israel. Israel joins the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) program.
An Israeli company is contributing technology to the program, however, Israel's participation was delayed partly by opposition from European countries, including Norway, which

strongly objected to Israel's participation in the JSF program, and threatened not to buy the plane if it included Israeli systems. Lockheed-Martin responded that in that case, Norway would have to seek its own alternatives.

Heh.

And Christopher Reeve is checking out stem cell research in Israel and visiting Israelis paralyzed by suicide bombings.

And some surprisingly positive developments from Old Europe.

(via GedankenPundit)

Listening to NPR's post-war Iraq coverage: Jeff Medcalf's
satire of a typical news report on National Public Radio is painfully accurate.

Thursday, July 31, 2003

Let us now praise honest men. Khaled Abu Toameh is a Palestinian journalist who tries to tell the truth. Yossi Klein Halevi called him “the bravest journalist in Israel.”

He said journalists have been arrested and roughed up, and had their notes or videotapes confiscated. Some have lost their jobs and newspapers have been shut down. The Palestinian media remains under the complete control of the PA, which perceives reporters’ jobs as serving “as a mouthpiece” for the government, Abu Toameh said. The result is that “professional journalists who want to do their job honestly are forced to work for either the foreign media or the Israeli media.”

. . . Abu Toameh said there is a great deal of self-censorship practiced by Palestinian and foreign journalists covering the Mideast because of fear of reprisals for reporting on issues sensitive to the authorities. “We always worry about losing access because that is what we live on,” he said. “It’s a constant dilemma,” he added, noting that “you have to find the balance between telling the truth and being able to continue to report.” Abu Toameh has reported on issues that most of his colleagues have refused to explore, including corruption within the PA and summary arrests and executions it has carried out. . . .

But this is the most important graf in the entire article:

Abu Toameh said that since the suicide war began in September 2000, there has been more widespread coverage of fraud and autocratic rule within the PA, primarily by the foreign press. But prior to that, “the media made the mistake of ignoring what went on within the PA,” he said, “and maybe world attention could have brought change.”

One year after the Hebrew U bombing.

For Gayle Adler, a newly arrived student from Orange County, Calif., the bombing was a catalyst, if a sad one, to study in Israel. Adler knew Marla Bennett, one of the five American killed in the attack. Bennett also hailed from California and was pursuing a degree in Jewish education from the Hebrew University and the Pardes Institute. By all accounts she was excited to be in Israel and loved her studies.

“Shortly after it happened I realized I can’t just sit and wait for Israel to be safe,” said Adler, who is 24 and has worked and studied in Israel extensively in the past. “When I read all the articles about Marla, and read what she herself wrote, I realized she was exactly where she wanted to be. “I could stay in California and wait for life to happen, or I could go to Israel and make life happen,” she said. “I chose the latter.”

More about Marla Bennett, Ben Blutstein, and Janice Coulter, and many articles and remembrances that followed in the wake of the bombing.
You can make a donation to the scholarship fund set up in their memory.
Some LGF readers attend the memorial service at the Knitting Factory.

UPDATE: Pix from a memorial concert in Israel. (via Brian Blum, Marla's cousin)

Jewish history. I don't have a problem with dismantling some encampments that are aren't near historic Jewish sites, are barely more than tent cities, and aren't easy to incorporate into a final border that won't look like an amoeba, but given how Arabs treat Jewish holy sites and communities in their midst, giving up the settlements that are actual historic Jewish towns isn't wise.

I used to think it was horrible for the Israelis to keep building settlements and that they were the obstacle to peace. The behavior of the Palestinians over the past 3 years, and some things I have learned about the settlements, moved me 180 degrees to the other side, and I'm not the only one. (The Pals are geniuses at turning well-meaning Jews who really want to give them the benefit of the doubt against them.)

If you think the West Bank settlements are illegal, immoral, fattening and the greatest obstacle to peace in the Middle East, check out these links:
The Great Israeli Settlement Myth.
Settlement myths and facts.
Hebron Revisited.
The Case for Hebron.
Jewish history in Gaza.

Why do Jewish women read the "Wedding" pages of the newspaper? I still don't get it.

Wednesday, July 30, 2003

Way too much cool stuff. Incredible aerial photography. (via Points of Departure)

Great t-shirt. (via Protocols.)

Baghdad, Jerusalem, Aachen – On the Trail of the White Elephant. A new museum exhibit about the times of Charlemagne and Harun al-Rashid. (via Paleojudaica.)

My apartment building. (via Amygdala.)

Precedent. In case another argument breaks out on the role of women in the armed forces, I just wanted to remind everybody that Jessica Lynch wasn't the first US Armed Forces female POW.

Jewish way in marriage: dealing with criticism, anger and negativity: One of the hardest parts of marriage is arguing. It is fine to get into an argument with most people - you can get over it, or, if not, life will continue. But an argument between husband and wife can become a cancer to their relationship. I'm quite lucky in that my wife and I manage to argue very rarely -- we seem matched so well that compromise rarely feels that way.

Rabbi Zelig Pliskin suggests one of the secrets to avoiding such cancers. I can't say that I take it to heart (I don't love criticism), but it seems reasonable:

Loving criticism is the ideal to strive for. This is listed in the last chapter of Ethics of the Fathers as one of the 48 tools to acquire Torah. The verse in Proverbs 9:8 states: "Do not rebuke a scoffer, lest he hate you; rebuke a wise man, and he will love you." The Vilna Gaon comments: "A wise person is someone who continuously wants to grow in Torah. He appreciates it if you point out to him that he is doing something wrong. His goal is self-improvement, and he loves every opportunity to become a better person."

... If you feel the criticism is not valid, you can calmly and respectfully say, "I realize you meant well, but I would like to explain why your criticism isn't valid."

If your spouse keeps arguing that you deserve the criticism and you still feel you don't, it's wise to stop. You might say, "I'll think it over."

... The Torah priority is that peace between husband and wife takes precedence over saying the truth if that will cause needless resentment. In the Torah we find that God distorted the truth to prevent a lack of shalom bayit between Abraham and Sarah. All the more so, it is permissible to refrain from correcting a trivial and inconsequential error to protect shalom bayit.

Rabbi Pliskin also recommends techniques for dealing with your spouse when they are angry:

When your spouse is angry, how you react will either increase his or her anger or decrease it. We find this wisdom in a well-known verse from Proverbs 15:1: "A soft reply turns away anger."

... When interacting with someone who is angry, the most important thing to remember is: Don't say anything that would just add fuel to the fire.

... It is usually wisest to apologize. In most instances, nothing will be gained by attacking your spouse's anger right then. After the issue is worked out, you might say, "You had a valid reason for being upset before. In the future I would appreciate it if you would word your complaints in a softer manner."

... When you are calm and in a peaceful state it might still be difficult to think clearly about what to say when you are spoken to angrily. But that is still much easier than when you yourself are also angry. If your spouse speaks to you in anger, that energy can easily elicit anger on your part, but you can still maintain a centered state and think clearly.

... If you had a group of people encouraging you, it would be easier. So imagine a multitude of people saying, "We know you can do it. Stay calm. Speak softly." Since it's impossible to have this multitude when you need them, you must create this inner voice saying, "You can do it. Stay calm. Speak softly." By repeating this over and over again, you will have created an inner voice that will reinforce your ability to actually stay calm and speak softly when you are faced with anger.

I have to admit I try to use a variation of this technique myself in my daily life.

Rabbi Pliskin discusses yet another trying aspect of marriage -- when your spouse is depressed or pessimistic.

How can you change someone from being bitter and cynical into someone who is cheerful, optimistic, and consistently appreciative of the good and the positive? It isn't easy, but before you try to change someone, your first priority is to protect yourself from being brought down. Influencing the other person requires a long-term plan based on strategic thinking. You need patience and a willingness to have a positive influence one small step at a time.

Be totally resolved that every negative statement of your spouse will automatically be met with a mental defense on your part. It might be inappropriate and counterproductive to express these statements, but you can think whatever you like.

Like the four children at Passover, each type of negativist requires a different approach (although there are only three listed):

If this person suffered a lot in his or her life, be compassionate and empathetic. Try to understand his or her pessimism and bitterness in the context of his or her entire life history. Perhaps life has been full of suffering; perhaps he or she grew up in a chaotic or dysfunctional environment. Then judge what is appropriate to say, and what would be better left unsaid. When compassion is required, that is our Torah obligation. A person who is suffering can't listen to a long lecture about being more positive. Only after feeling genuinely understood can this person hear about another outlook and attitude.

If a person who tends to be cynical and pessimistic views himself or herself as highly intelligent and sees you in a lesser light, he or she will usually ignore the positive things you say. They will think, "This person is naive."

Asking questions might help this person see things more positively. You might ask, "Is anything going right in your life?" or, "Can you think of anything that is already the way you want it to be?" You might even ask, "Can you think of a plan to improve the situation?" Suppose they say, "No." Then you can say, "Perhaps you can find someone who could suggest improvements."

Some people who are cynical need to be told, "You think your thoughts are reality, but anyone who has a more comprehensive view will see that your perspective is limited." Maybe the person will concede you have a point and his or her way of thinking is just a habit that can change. Then you are making progress.

Gotta love those Rabbis!

Tuesday, July 29, 2003

Can there be a decent Left? Dept. Michael Walzer. Todd Gitlin. Paul Berman. And now Norman Geras, a Marxist who defends the Iraq invasion on humanitarian grounds with devastating logic and precision. Welcome to the anti-idiotarian world, Norm. We need you. (via Andrew Sullivan)

Zoning regulations, religious groups, and neighbors clash: Federal law allows religious groups an exemption from regular zoning restrictions. In LA, this has allowed a group of Hassidic Orthodox Jews to tear down a 70-year-old house to build a synagogue in the heart of the ritzy Hancock Park neighborhood. Eight years ago Congregation Etz Chaim was denied a permit to use the site as a synagogue, told it would detract from the neighborhood's residential quality. The congregation sued the city for violating Federal law, getting the city to settle in 2001.

Now their neighbors are hopping mad and getting organized to stop it.

"The law allows any priest, mullah or Wiccan to set up a church next door to your house," says Hancock Park resident Len Hill.

The 2000 law, known as the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act, bars governments from enforcing zoning codes that impose "a substantial burden" on religious assembly, unless a "compelling governmental interest" can be cited. The genesis of the law dates to 1990, when some conservative politicians latched onto a controversy over Native Americans' religious practices as an example of infringement on religious freedom. One response to the controversy was passage of RLUIPA 10 years later.

Religious groups from Wyoming to Connecticut are invoking the law to build everything from soup kitchens to day care centers, often in residential areas. In Austin, Texas, a Baptist church sued the municipality for violating RLUIPA after it rejected the church's plan to build a five-story parking lot on a residential street. County officials say one man outside Pittsburgh started the Church of Universal Love and Music after he wasn't allowed to hold outdoor music concerts.

Mr. Hill ... and eight other wealthy residents of Hancock Park have raised $500,000 for a campaign to overturn the law. The group has formed the League of Residential Neighborhood Advocates, a nonprofit organization that plans to fund lawsuits on behalf of like-minded homeowners across the country.

... "The term 'compelling interest' is really esoteric," says Marci A. Hamilton, the league's attorney. "The law basically gives religious landowners special privileges."

Proponents say that RLUIPA isn't a trump card but protects religious groups, particularly of non-Christian faiths, from cities and residents that try to use zoning ordinances to discriminate against them. City officials try to keep religious groups out of commercial areas because they don't generate sales tax revenues. Homeowners, in turn, cite zoning laws to keep institutions out of their neighborhoods, says Derek Gaubatz, legal counsel at the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, a public-interest law firm in Washington.

Keep in mind, these Hasidic Jews are not exactly Johnnies-come-lately to this neighborhood -- they've been holding services in a home in this neighborhood for about 30 years. They bought the new synagogue so that their aging membership would have an easier time walking to shuel -- it is more central for where the congregation lives.

The congregation applied for a permit to use the house as a synagogue but they say a small group of homeowners lobbied the city to deny the permit. Indeed, one Hancock Park resident, outraged by the behavior of his neighbors, offered the services of his high-powered law firm, Latham & Watkins, to sue the city, leading to the settlement. The deal capped the number of worshippers at 50 and prohibited ancillary services, such as day care.

"The settlement only allows them to go there and pray," says attorney Susan Azad, another partner at Los Angeles-based Latham & Watkins. "It's sad that these powerful homeowners have chosen to go after these people who are just trying to worship their God."

The league's nine members say the dispute isn't about religion but about preserving the residential character of their neighborhood. The league says city officials entered a settlement behind closed doors and denied homeowners the right to a public hearing. The group filed a lawsuit Thursday in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles claiming that the congregation and the city violated the land-use laws when striking the settlement. The league is also seeking an injunction that would prohibit Rabbi Rubin from holding religious services at his current Hancock Park home.

"The league was formed in the dust of that demolition," says Mr. Hill. "It was a rude awakening for the community." ("Should Religious Groups Be Exempt From Zoning?" By Queena Sook Kim, The Wall Street Journal, July 15)

PC recruitment standards: Al Qaeda may be recruiting in Canada.

Canadian authorities are quite upset.

The recruitment posters are not in both English and French.

(courtesy of Mike Sultan)

Those racist imperialist apartheid-imposing fundamentalist settlers. Even the Palestine Chronicle - as rabid a propaganda organ for the Palestinian cause as one can find - admits that

About 44 percent of settlers said that Palestinians deserve their own state while 47 percent believe this Palestinian state would eventually be established on parts of the West Bank.

and

Regarding what Israeli officials descrbibe as “illegal” outposts, 66 percent of respondents said they should be dismantled, while 34 percent were opposed.

(via Exposing the Exposer)

Monday, July 28, 2003

Jews in odd places: Celebrating Rashi in France: In 2005, Troyes, the ancient capital of the Counts of Champagne in northern France, will celebrate the 900th anniversary of the death of its most famous son, known to the Jewish world by his acronym of Rashi.

The author of the monumental commentary on the Talmud and the Torah, Rashi was born in Troyes in 1040, and although his grave has never been found, scholars believe he died there in about 1105.

For obvious reasons, the town missed out on the anniversary of Rashi’s birth in 1940. They don't want to miss this opportunity. (JTA has more background on Rashi and the town of Troyes)

A one-woman brigade. Rick Richman pays tribute to Jerusalem Post reporter Caroline Glick, who was embedded with US Forces during the Iraq War and has written eloquently about the Arab-Israeli conflict. Lots of links to her articles.

Describing what is right in front of your nose Dept. Poll: Americans Say Islam Urges Violence. (via LGF comments, which may have had some effect on these poll results)

This week's Pintele Yid recommendation - For our gentile friends and Jews who want to rediscover their heritage - recommending quintessentially Jewish cultural works (books, TV specials, CDs, Torah teachers, poets, websites, and more) which transport you inside a Jewish skin and show you the world through Jewish eyes.

Last week's recommendation.
Week 3 recommendation.
Week 2 recommendation.
Introduction to the series and first recommendation.

And now for some relief from text: This is a book, but it was originally a TV series, and it's also an audiobook and a website.

Along with the Everett Fox translation of the Bible (next week's Pintele Yid pick), the conversations on Genesis hosted by Bill Moyers are a great resource for people whose spiritual nerve endings have been cauterized by oppressive literalism.

"In all honesty, when I first tuned into Genesis the PBS series, I wasn't really in the mood to hear a cabal of hyper- intellectual critics enlighten me with their interpretations of an already widely familiar religious text. Within seconds of watching, however, I was completely engrossed in a conversation unlike any I'd experienced before--lively, intelligent, generous, illuminating, exciting. ...."

Moyers may have grown up Baptist, but he knows how to facilitate a Jewish approach to sacred texts, which is one reason I recommend this multimedia immersion in the first book of our national mythology/history. (Or perhaps he learned how Jews wrestle with text from his collaborator JTS professor Burt Visotzky, from whom I had the pleasure of taking a short class this spring.)

(If you have issues with Bill Moyers because of his recent statements about the war in Iraq, save it.)

Week 6.
Week 7.
Week 8.

Sunday, July 27, 2003

An ugly idea whose time has come. Hillel Halkin writes about The Wall. And don't think you know what side he's on until you've read the whole thing.

Jews in Iraq Dept. The rabbi of the 101st Airborne unearths some more ancient Jewish history.

I am writing to you from Nineveh, the city of the prophet Jonah. Its present name is Mosul. I have had the privilege of seeing its ancient walls, of touching its stones, of going to the grave Islamic tradition says is the prophet Jonah's. There is a mosque at the site; but hundreds of years ago, the Iraqis we work with tell me, it was a synagogue.

Funny how that happens.

There is a great history to be written here, a great opportunity to recover the lost narrative of our people, the Sephardim of Iraq. My prayer and hope is that when the gates finally open for scholars the remnants of our people will still be here for historians to recover. I have taken many pictures in case those who have no vision destroy the few remnants that remain. I hope there are yet some Jews from this important and holy community still alive in Israel. If so they will be able to add to the oral history of what will, God willing, be discovered here.

If this chapter of history is erased, it will never be recovered again. I pray that those with more resources, more connections, and more wisdom than I will be able to add to these pages of our great history. I am only thankful that God has given me a small part in it. May the memories of our brothers and sisters - hakahal hakadosh d'Nineveh - the holy community of Nineveh - never be forgotten.

Ameyn.

Another myth in the making. Once again, the Palestinians are so hypocritical that even a partisan like Amira Hass has to acknowledge it.

About 6 months ago, I fisked an article she wrote about the reluctance of "solidarity" groups like ISM to criticize suicide bombers and armed jihadi groups, even though these groups claim to uphold non-violent resistence. She came up with all sort of excuses for them, but the hypocrisy was too blatant to ignore.

Now Hass writes about a Palestinian who claims to have been beaten by the IDF, but upon investigation admits that he was actually beaten by Palestinian "security forces" for being a "collaborator."

But I'm sure this story will enter the pantheon of anti-Israel myths that persist despite all the facts and attempts to debunk them.

"And when a stranger shall sojourn with you . . ." Zachary Berger has some thoughts on Jewish-gentile intermarriage, pointing out that some people may not be ready for two "marriages" at once. Specifically, conversion is as profound a commitment as marriage; someone who converts to Judaism is in a very real way "marrying into" the Jewish extended family. Some people want to make that decision consciously and conscientiously, for themselves, not as a pre-condition for marrying a particular individual.

All of which is to say that a gentile spouse may not be ready to convert before the wedding, but may very well commit to a Jewish home and raising Jewish children, and may be ready to convert after some years of participating in Jewish communal life. And I have seen this process take place with several families I know.

In Biblical times there was a place for such people in the Israelite community.

Because many gerim or their descendants in biblical Israel assumed an Israelite identity, or at least took to practicing Israelite rituals, the word ger eventually changed meaning in Hebrew and began to refer to an outsider who has joined the Jewish people. Indeed, this meaning can already be found implicitly in some biblical texts, as in Exodus's "And when a stranger shall sojourn with thee [ve'khi yagur itkha ger], and will keep the Passover... let all his males be circumcised, and then let him come near it and keep it; for he shall be as one that is born in the land."

Such a ger was in effect a convert to Judaism, although not all gerim went this far. In rabbinic literature we have the term ger tsedek, the "just ger," to distinguish the sincere convert not only from the ger toshav, the "resident ger" who does not convert . . . in the heyday of the Roman Empire — in which, before the establishment of Christianity as the state religion, conversion to Judaism was widespread — we find yet another distinction between the true ger or ger tsedek (Latin proselytus or Greek proselutos), and the yerei-elohim or "God-fearer" (Latin metuens and Greek phoboumenos). The latter category consisted of individuals, perhaps comparable to some converts to Reform Judaism today, who identified with Jewish monotheism and its practice without committing themselves to a strict observance of the 613 commandments of Jewish tradition.

Rabbi Steve Greenberg elaborates:

The ger toshav was not a convert. He was, according to the rabbis, a gentile who lived among the Jewish people, happy to be part of the Jewish world and supportive of the religious and social frames of Jewish life. He could eat tref (nonkosher) but was not permitted to publicly worship other gods, and if he was circumcised, he could partake of the Passover sacrifice. He was a lover of the Jewish people, though not a Jew himself. In many intermarried homes today, this characterization would aptly describe the feelings and commitments of the non-Jewish spouse.

Rabbi Greenberg has carefully thought through how this category could be applied to intermarriages today - read the whole thing.

UPDATE: Head Heeb reminds me that he wrote about intermarriage as part of a reflection on a controversial Israeli immigration case.

Kesher Talk

Saturday, August 02, 2003

Friday, August 01, 2003

Thursday, July 31, 2003

Wednesday, July 30, 2003

Tuesday, July 29, 2003

Monday, July 28, 2003

Sunday, July 27, 2003

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